Enclave by Ann Aguirre
Find it at a local indie!
- Why I read it: dystopia fangrrling, life underground, kick-ass heroines
- Disclosure: Received a final published edition from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.
As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.
Down below, deviation from the rules is punished swiftly and harshly, and Fade doesn’t like following orders. At first she thinks he’s crazy, but as death stalks their sanctuary, and it becomes clear the elders don’t always know best, Deuce wonders if Fade might be telling the truth. Her partner confuses her; she’s never known a boy like him before, as prone to touching her gently as using his knives with feral grace.
As Deuce’s perception shifts, so does the balance in the constant battle for survival. The mindless Freaks, once considered a threat only due to their sheer numbers, show signs of cunning and strategy… but the elders refuse to heed any warnings. Despite imminent disaster, the enclave puts their faith in strictures and sacrifice instead. No matter how she tries, Deuce cannot stem the dark tide that carries her far from the only world she’s ever known.
You know what I hate about writing book reviews? When I don't like a book as much as I could have, and it's not in any way the book's fault, but I can't quite get over myself long enough to write a glowing review. I loved
Enclave. It's far and away the best dystopia I've read all year, and even made it to the tenth spot on my
Best of 2011 so far post. It's just that, as lost in a sea of mediocre dystopias as I am, I got too cynical about it. Aspects of Aguirre's dystopian world I would have let slide and maybe even loved a year or two again became almost unbearably grating, and at times I felt like shaking the heroes out of falling into every trap dystopian heroes have fallen into since time immemorial.
So no, due to extenuating circumstances in publishing I can't quite give it a glowing review. But I can certainly give it the very, very good one it deserves.
First, and perhaps best, Aguirre pulls no punches.
Enclave is truly a return to the no-holds-barred, all-or-nothing dystopia I fell in love with, and it's one of the few I can wholeheartedly name a decent successor to
The Hunger Games in intensity. Characters drop like flies, but never in the way that feels calculated by the author to tug on the heartstrings of readers; they're all simply deaths that evolve organically from the story, and amen to that.
Second, Aguirre creates a world I can actually believe in - a hybrid between the hyper-controlled societies that seem to dominate dystopia nowadays, and the sharply unequal and classist society of Paolo Bacigalupi's
Ship Breaker - again, following in the footsteps of
The Hunger Games without feeling derivative. For what it's worth, my money's on the world of
Ship Breaker for a dystopian future we may actually be headed for, but
Enclave's setting certainly gave me some fascinating things to think about and (very rarely) distracted me from the story. (One thing, though, that's also an issue in
City of Ember, Gregor the Overlander, and other life-underground stories - is it even possible for humans to survive without the sun underground for extended periods? Can someone study this, please?)
Third, Aguirre's characters are likeable enough to make my first pulling-no-punches point effective. A few of them feel like the sort of stock characters every dystopia author reaches for every time they write the story into the corner - Pearl in particular - but more than making up for that is the fact that they all read like products of their world and not ours. Similar to my issues with some historical fiction protagonists, dystopian authors so often write their characters like the teens of today, without taking into account how different future life and future teenagers would really be. Deuce was the perfect balance between authentic and relatable, and I ate it up, even when I didn't agree with her decisions. (Like pretty much every decision she makes involving Fade. Girl is CLUELESS.)
In many ways,
Enclave ran in the vein of the classic dystopia I love; borrowing more from science fiction than from modern, pop, sanitized titles. I'm delighted to have gotten the chance to read it, and am very much looking forward to the second installment in the series, especially after the maddeningly-ambiguous-in-a-good-way ending. What it lacks, though, is the modern social commentary of the classics. I can't point to a single aspect of modern society it examines or condemns, and that's what gives sci-fi and dystopia staying power for me.
Still, it's my top pick for dystopia fans this year (though I have yet to read the much-buzzed-about
Divergent). I can't wait to see where Ann Aguirre takes us next!
Four out of five stars.
