Kolonie

Original title: Under Glass
Author: Sam Marsden
Translator: Lenka Landová
Publisher: Fragment
Publishing date: 2021
Pages: 272



In this thrilling debut novel by Sam Marsden we get to witness what it means to live in a seemingly perfect world under the glass dome on Mars. The story sets off when the brother of our main character is sentenced to death in order to maintain the perfection of the society as a whole. In this world it is believed that the good of the society should be put above the good of an individual. That's why Eva's brother has to sacrife himself when his sickness prevents him from being beneficial to the comunity. Which is precisely the moment that forcess Eva to question the ways of the world she lives in. Slowly she starts to recognize all the wrong things with the society that her mother spent building over the last decade. But will she find the inner strenght required to oppose her mother and her drastic regime?

I read this book within one day because it was one of those you just cannot put down untill you find out how it ends. I was immediatelly intreagued by the world building and there was no preamble to the action, so I was compltely swept away from the very beginning. I also found myself in the main character a lot, which is why the story felt extremely personal to me. Eva struggled with OCD and depression, and I thought that the author handled these issues really well. It felt both truthful and reassuring. This book deals with so many important topics. For example, how a person deals with the realization that what they believed in their whole life is essentially wrong. I love that even though this book was super fast-paced, there was still a lot of opportunities to meditate on important things in life. I definitely did a lot of thinking myself alongside the main character.

The story itself is very thought provoking, and combined with the powerful writing, it made my emotions run awry. We get to witness the transformation of Eva from someone who is unquestioningly obedient into a conscious person truthful to her own belief and morale. I found reading her story greatly empowering and inspiring. I also enjoyed the romantic aspect of this book. It wasn't predominant to the story as a whole, but I thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of it. It was incredibly sweet and it made me feel all the feels. In fact, I was rooting for our main character and her love interest so much that my one and only complaint about this book would be that I wished to spend more time with them. I was over all very satisfied with the ending. I thought the conclusion to the story was done beautifully. I just wanted at least one more conversation between the two. It would've made me so happy. Now I have no choice but to hope that the author will grace us with a companion novel. Either way, I will read anything from Sam Marsden. Her debut novel was absolutely wonderful and so extremely touching that I definitely won't miss any book by her in the future...

Comments

  1. Thank you so much for this beautiful review! It's made me very happy to read it. I'm delighted you found Eva's story empowering and inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. I thank you, Sam, for such a beautiful book. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait for all the new wonderful stories from you in the future... :-)

      Delete
  2. Mám rada sci-fi tému v príbehoch a hoci mám rada aj romantiku, vždy sa mi najviac páči, keď je len tak po troškách - čo najnenápadnejšie náznaky lásky. Takže knižku už mám vo wishliste. :) A nedá mi nevšimnúť si priezvisko autorky - že by si práve preto vybrala planétu Mars? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tak to jsme na tom stejně. Taky mám ráda, když je romantika v knihách vyvážená. Tahle byla tak naprosto skvělá, že bych se ale nezlobila, kdyby jí bylo i víc. Věřím, že Tě nezklame. A jsem moc ráda, že se kniha dostala do Tvého wishlistu. :-)

      Delete
  3. Už dlouho se mi nestalo, že bych knihu přečetla za jeden den. A strašně ráda bych to zase někdy zažila, takovou čtenářskou jízdu... :)

    Mimochodem, trochu jsem udělala škatulata a rozhodla jsem se víc si chránit své soukromí, takže články z mého života jsou teď zaheslované. Kdybys je ale chtěla číst (budu moc ráda), napiš mi a já ti dám heslo. Nechci ti to vnucovat, nicméně sledujeme se už tak strašně dlouho, že mám pocit, jako bychom se opravdu znaly. :-)

    Měj se krásně a přeji ti hezké Velikonoce a hodně pěkných čtenářských zážitků!
    Vlasta

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahojky Vlasti, mockrát děkuji za milý komentář. Promiň, že jsem se neozvla dřív, všimla jsem si ho až teď. Určitě budu ráda, když mi zašleš heslo k Tvým příspěvkům. Vždycky se ráda podívám, co je u Tebe nového. Měj se moc krásně a opatruj se... :-)

      Delete

Post a Comment