Zsuzsi Gartner’s writing is witty, wry, satirical, and very intelligent. In her book of short stories, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, Gartner scrutinizes everyone. From the real estate agent in her Hummer to the homeless person getting publicly funded plastic surgery. Set in city similar to Vancouver (or Vancouver on the verge of the apocalypse) and suburbs riddled with cul-de-sacs, the stories vary from science fiction to simply satirical fiction.

From an emerging master of short fiction and one of Canada’s most distinctive voices, a collection of stories as heartbreaking as those of Lorrie Moore and as hilariously off-kilter as something out of McSweeney’s.

In Better Living through Plastic Explosives, Zsuzsi Gartner delivers a powerful second dose of the lacerating satire that marked her acclaimed debut, All the Anxious Girls on Earth, but with even greater depth and darker humour. Whether she casts her eye on evolution and modern manhood when an upscale cul-de-sac is thrown into chaos after a redneck moves into the neighbourhood, international adoption, war photography, real estate, the movie industry, motivational speakers, or terrorism, Gartner filets the righteous and the ridiculous with dexterity in equal, glorious measure.

These stories ruthlessly expose our most secret desires, and allow us to snort with laughter at the grotesque world we’d live in if we all got what we wanted.

From the publisher, Hamish Hamilton (imprint of Penguin Books)

I enjoyed the stories but often felt like I needed to read one at a time to properly absorb Gartner’s social commentary; thus it took me nearly three weeks to read this book and another two to write a review. As is the case with most short story collection, I didn’t enjoy every story but some really resonated with me. Some stories felt a little too obscure to follow and I often felt like I was missing the point, hidden too deeply behind wacky caricatures.

The stories have an overall theme of ‘plastic’ or ‘artificial’ relating to people’s current obsession with money, technology and the digital experience. Characters are absorbed by email, iPods, texting, fancy cars and gigantic homes. Contrasted by the luscious West Coast surroundings, Gartner shows how alien and obtuse these obsessions are. Gartner’s cultural critique is relentless, her writing sharp and style unconventional.

• Listen to Summer of the Flesh Eater (excerpt from the book)
• Review in the National Post
• Review from Pickle Me This (CanLit book blogger)
• Review in Quill & Quire
• Review from Bella’s Bookshelves (I feel pretty similarly)

Full disclosure: I read an ARC that we received at the office last year.

SPOILER ALERT: This is the second book in the Hunger Games series. If you have not read it, or haven’t finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, DO NOT read this post!

I have been wanting to read Catching Fire ever since I finished The Hunger Games in August. I resisted mainly because of my huge TBR pile. However, with the holidays, I got a chance to read it. Here is the synopsis of Catching Fire (and I must say, it does a good job of meeting this hype):

After winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen returns to her district, hoping for a peaceful future. But Katniss starts to hear rumours of a deadly rebellion against the Capitol. A rebellion that she and Peeta have helped to create. As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless Katniss and Peeta can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying…

I flew through the book in three days! I would say that Catching Fire isn’t quite as compelling as The Hunger Games, but that is often the case with series; the second book has to deal with all the cliffhangers and strings the first book left hanging. But Catching Fire was certainly a good transitional book, and even though it can’t stand alone without The Hunger Games, it sets things up well for the third book.

I really enjoyed the story, and the directions that were taken in regards to the Capitol’s choices and the District’s reactions. I enjoyed the symbolism that the mockingjay took on and what it came to represent. I liked the twist at the end with District 13, the Gamemakers, and Haymitch.

I’m very glad that we have to wait at least a year for the next book because then the author, Suzanne Collins, and her editor(s) have time to work on it. I think that Stephanie Meyer lost that memo with Breaking Dawn, the final installment of the Twilight series. Although J.K. Rowling took a lot of time between the Harry Potter books and didn’t lose much hype. It certainly appears to be a delicate balance, especially if the series is optioned for a movie … which I don’t doubt it will be.

UPDATE (August 2010): Read my review for Mockingjay (book 3)

Extras is the fourth book in the Uglies series after Uglies, Pretties, and Specials. Extras takes place after the end of the Prettytime, which is called the mind-rain. Cities all over the world are changing, especially Aya Fuse’s which now runs on a “reputation economy”. The more you are talked about, the higher your face-rank goes; the higher your face-rank, the “richer” you are. To gain face-rank, all citizens are given a dedicated channel called feeds and can use a hovercam to “kick” stories.

Unfortunately, at 15, Aya is still an ugly, and with a depressingly low face-rank, she’s considered an “extra”. But when Aya Fuse meets a secret clique, she thinks that “kicking” their story will finally make her popular. She ends up stumbling upon possibly the biggest story since the mind-rain, even Tally Youngblood can’t stay away. Tally and her friends from the first three books in the series finally show up to help Aya and her friends save their city… and perhaps the post-Prettytime world.

I felt like Extras lacked the direction and social/moral commentary that the first three books had. Oddly enough, the series felt concluded at the end of Specials. The first half of the book focused on the secret clique that Aya joins just to kick their story, which feels misleading after we discover what the book is really about. And the secret that brings Tally and her friends back into the book felt a little far-fetched. I don’t want to ruin anything, so no spoilers, but if you decide to read the series, I’d recommend just the first three.

Click to read my review of Uglies, Pretties, and Specials.

Specials is the third book in the “Uglies” series by Scott Westerfeld. The first two books, Uglies and Pretties, introduce us to Tally and her friends. The premise of the series is in a post-Rusty world (which was essentially our society), all kids become Pretty on their sixteenth birthday. Then you get to move out of Uglyville and go to New Pretty Town and party all the time. When you’re a pretty, everything is fun and “bubbly”. (Click here for my review of the first two books.)

After everything Tally and her friends endured in the last two books, the authorities turn them into “Specials” – a distinctly different cruel-looking Pretty with super-human strength and built-in technology. The city’s controllers want to use Tally as their own special weapons. When they get the chance to crush the New Smokies (people who live outside of the cities and don’t get the Pretty operation), Tally finds she is conflicted between her new instincts and her faded memories.

Specials had less social commentary compared to the first two books. While the emphasis was on following Tally’s story, there was underlying themes of thinking for yourself, respect for the natural world, and right vs. wrong. However, this book is definitely not stand-alone; you need to have read Uglies and Pretties to follow the story and characters.

When I first saw Uglies in the bookstore a couple years ago, I read the back of the novel and immediately rejected it for my then-13-year-old cousin. I was shopping for her birthday gift and didn’t want to give her a book about focusing on outward appearances. It took a little convincing from Marina (who lent me the books) to get it into my “pretty little head” that this book was more than just skin deep. The dystopian themes in the series reminds me of Brave New World and Animal Farm.

The premise of the series is in a post-Rusty world (which was essentially our society), all kids become Pretty on their sixteenth birthday. Then you get to move out of Uglyville and go to New Pretty Town and party all the time. When you’re a pretty, everything is fun and “bubbly”. The twist is when our main character, Tally, meets Shay — who doesn’t want to become pretty. Shay runs away the week before she’s supposed to turn pretty, leaving Tally. When the authorities realize that Shay has run away, they blackmail Tally into going into the wild to find her. But when Tally reaches the Smoke and gets to know the Smokies (the people that run away and choose to live as Uglies in the wild), she realizes that she doesn’t want to be pretty either.

Uglies and Pretties are the first two books in this series by Scott Westerfeld, and they tackle some very serious subject matter. Unlike other dystopian novels for young adults, this book doesn’t just imply Tally’s displeasure with the current regime. Tally and her friends openly rebel, plot, and deceive to free themselves from their mind-oppression. This series has strong themes that aren’t as subtle as another dystopian YA novel I just finished; the characters express open displeasure for the world’s current authorities. Westerfeld has a lot of commentary on the freedom of thought — and it is portrayed extremely well in Tally.

Speaking of Tally, I really like this character. She is a strong female character, but she is also flawed (and not just when she’s ugly). She has friend troubles, boy troubles, and problems with authority. I was compelled when she was in trouble, intrigued when she was crafty, and cringed when she was embarrassed.

I can’t tell you too much about what happens in Pretties without giving away the ending of Uglies. However, as soon as I closed the back cover of Uglies, I walked over to the bookshelf and picked up Pretties.