Title: The Pledge
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication Date: November 15, 2011
Source: Borrowed from library
The Summary
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In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution.
Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.
Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.
Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.
Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.
(Goodreads)
My Opinion
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Kimberly Derting has another fantastic book with The Pledge. A mix of fantasy and dystopia, the real drive of the story is the mystery behind the protagonist, Charlie. I really loved the book: the characters, the plot, and especially the cover (it's gorgeous). This is one of my favorite books of 2011!
Right away the reader is dropped into a world both familiar and foreign. Living in a kingdom made up of separate classes, Charlie is a part of the Vendor class, working at her parents' restaurant after school; a school that is only for Vendor kids. Because she is part of this class she can only speak Parshon, Vendor tongue, and Englaise, the universal tongue in the country. This distinction is important because if Charlie were to look at a higher class person speaking their language, she would be sentenced to death. For Charlie this is extra hard because she has a special ability: she is able to understand all spoken and written languages. When you find that out, the book really starts going! This ability puts Charlie in danger and at so many points in the book you gasp for her.
As the protagonist, Charlie is written really strongly, and just one of the characters that I loved (my next two favorites are Max and her sister, Angelina). Of course I felt each of the characters were so important to the story. Derting writes each character in a way that each of them is important to the plot, and you can't really get rid of any of them without changing the story. This is something I really appreciate in books; I hate when there are superflous characters that have no point to them.
Of course, while the characters were great, the plot was fantastic!. As I said earlier, the world we visit feels like our America or England, but then there is always something off that reminds you you're in a dystopian world. Besides the world building, the twists Derting throws every chapter really moves along the book. Each chapter held something new and kept me interested throughout the book.
The writing is great as well. The main chapters are told from Charlie's point of view, but occasionally Derting will switch to another character's point of view. This works well to learn the motivation of some characters without there being "telling". These sections are often more lyrical in the writing then the main chapters, which I liked a lot.
Overall, Derting did a wonderful job captivating my attention and making me care about the characters in just 323 pages. The Pledge, much like her Body Finder series, is the 1st book in the series, which I for one am super excited about because she definitely left me wanting more! I would recommend this to fans of Whiter, Matched, and Across the Universe. Check out Kimberly Derting's The Pledge; you won't be disappointed!
Extras
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Kimberly Derting talks about THE PLEDGE
Final Rating
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Book Cover: 5/5
Book Title: 4.5/5
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing: 9.5/10
Ending: 9/10
Overall: 47/50: A
i LOVED this book! it was just super cool and unique!
ReplyDeletewill you stop by my post full of quotes from some of today's best authors!?! :)
http://lindsaycummingsblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/writing-inspiration-quotes-from-some-of.html