Versailles

Book Title: Versailles

Author: Yannick Hill

Date Started: October 29th 2016

Date Completed: November 9th 2016

Genres: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to Unbound Publishers for this copy for review ◆

Versailles was an interesting idea and something I hadn't seen before in the Young Adult genre but it wasn't pulled off as well I would have liked. There were a lot of things I liked about this book, but they were far and few in between and as a whole piece, it couldn't hold my attention. I got about half way through, but unfortunately I just had to make the decision to leave it there because I wasn't giving it much attention anymore because it just left me unengaged.

When I started this book I was pleasantly surprised by how different it felt. The first thing that I noticed was how like a script it read - and in a good way. I can see how some people might find it a bit disjointing, but for a film geek like me, it was strangely refreshing. Not least in the way that it hid some of the very direct storytelling the Hill uses; I hate it when authors tell the reader things in a situation or about a character instead of showing them through the action, but it wasn't so frustrating in this style. Unfortunately, it isn't really enough to hold up a story that doesn't feel like it's progressing even at the halfway point.

The story about the family inside the digital fortress of Versailles was miles ahead of the exploration of technology's influence on our culture. This isn't even that much of an insight into what constant, inescapable media could do to a family in a fictional world, it's about this particular family. Perhaps if the message around technology wasn't so confused it might be different, but what I read in the first half of the novel showed the evilness of humans to be a far greater threat than the technology they used to stay in power. Honestly, as far as I could tell the technology wasn't that damaging at all (it's even a very clear and effective escape for River's problematic situation), but it's in fact the father who's ruining these people's lives - a father who is painted as a one-sided psychopath, I might add.

Which moves me onto my other issue that made it had for me to stay engaged and immersed in the story: I didn't know what I was supposed to take seriously. There's a lot of abstract imagery in Versailles, and that caught my attention at first, but then there's some things that I don't know if they're actually there in this futuristic technological dystopia, or if they're a metaphor. When you combine that with some honestly ridiculous attempts to create teenage memes or whatever you want to call it, you cross a line between what can be understood in the suspension-of-belief that fiction creates, and what's just silly. I don't know what parts of Versailles were supposed to be taken seriously and what was intended to be satirical, and I think that comes from putting some character into prose.

I think the biggest problem for me was that the characters were just dislikeable. Now, I appreciate they're all supposed to be brainwashed at the start (presumably it develops a little more in the second half of the book, but I didn't see huge leaps in the first portion), but it's exaggerated to the point where I didn't like them, and I wasn't rooting for them or anything they did. And the problem was then that you're supposed to connect to these people being smothered in this futuristic digital palace, but I didn't because they felt so alien and emotionless to the point where it wasn't enjoyable to read about them. Even Missy, who arguably leads the story through her rebellious act of running away from both her home and all social media, doesn't feel like she actually believes in what she's doing. They're characters going through the motions of a narrative without the heart to come to life.

For an exploration into the influence of technology for a Young Adult audience, Versailles is an interesting new addition to what's available. Personally, it couldn't decide on what it was enough to be able to get me on board, but there are definitely some aspects which I was pleasantly surprised to read about. It's not quite contemporary but features family dynamics, not quite sci-fi but is definitely very futuristic, not quite adventure but has road-trip aspects to it - the list goes on. I can't say I've seen anything exactly like it on the market so if it sounds intriguing maybe it'll be that something new for you.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27993245-versailles