Summary:
Written as a journal, Tania Deeley tells us about her life. She shares her thoughts, feelings, and dreams as she goes through her day to day life. She has always known that teknoids (specialized androids) existed, but she didn't really think about it until she began high school. Now she believes that her best friend may be one and she is determined to find out more. The only problem is that she is up against the "expiration day" as all teknoids must be returned to Oxted Corporation by their 18th birthday.
My thought:
I had a great time with this novel. Tania is very thorough with her explanation and description of everything. We get to see what she sees and know what she knows through a very intimate retelling within her diary. When she begins to be curious about these human copies, she may be biting off more than she can chew, but it is very interesting. I particularly enjoyed how life like the androids are and the reasoning behind their creation. These robots weren't made to do things for us like a lot of android/robot stories go. They are not hell bent on turning evil because they have been mistreated either. This story is about love, friendship, and family with the science fiction mixed into it. These disturbing times where to be human is becoming extinct, the androids have been built in a way to fill in those gaps and solve the desire to be with other "humans."
Written as a journal, Tania Deeley tells us about her life. She shares her thoughts, feelings, and dreams as she goes through her day to day life. She has always known that teknoids (specialized androids) existed, but she didn't really think about it until she began high school. Now she believes that her best friend may be one and she is determined to find out more. The only problem is that she is up against the "expiration day" as all teknoids must be returned to Oxted Corporation by their 18th birthday.
My thought:
I had a great time with this novel. Tania is very thorough with her explanation and description of everything. We get to see what she sees and know what she knows through a very intimate retelling within her diary. When she begins to be curious about these human copies, she may be biting off more than she can chew, but it is very interesting. I particularly enjoyed how life like the androids are and the reasoning behind their creation. These robots weren't made to do things for us like a lot of android/robot stories go. They are not hell bent on turning evil because they have been mistreated either. This story is about love, friendship, and family with the science fiction mixed into it. These disturbing times where to be human is becoming extinct, the androids have been built in a way to fill in those gaps and solve the desire to be with other "humans."
MY THOUGHTS
I was expecting so much more in this book. Granted, I didn't know much about it when I picked it up, but I knew it was a dystopian and the tagline promises a lot more than I ended up reading. This book was okay, but it's basically a coming-of-age with robots and not a whole lot happens.
This book begins in the year 2049 on Tania's eleventh birthday and follows her throughout her teenage years. Tania lives in a world where there are few human children left, because a majority of the population is unable to have children. Instead, they adopt robot children. They look human and act human, even think they're human, but each are owned by a government corporation called Oxted. And once they reach 18, Oxted takes them back.
This book is written in diary format, as Tania's diary. She starts it at age 11 and continues writting out the details of her life as the years go back. It's an interesting format and Tania's voice was very strong in the writing. She also wrote as if to a future race, which could be annoying, but I actually thought that made it more real. I would probably wonder that too, and who's to say it's not possibly? In fact, there are intervals throughout the book that are actually from a future race reading Tania's diary. This was interesting, but unnecessary to the story. It was also really confusing.
I like the idea behind the book behind the robot children, but this book was less high-stakes dystopian and more coming-of-age. I wasn't expecting that and while I did like the ideas the book had (sorry for being vague, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers), this book was extremely slow-paced. Not much happened at all, it was mostly details of Tania's life. Granted, she's in the future, but not a whole lot happens.
Tania, as a character, she's okay. I thought it was interesting seeing her grow and learn more about the world she was living in. She has her flaws, but she did feel real. I can't really say much about her without spoiling things, though.
As for romance, Tania kind of likes a guy throughout the book, but I really didn't feel anything from it. It was really meh.
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I wasn't overly impressed by this book. It has a very interesting idea, but it wasn't what I was expecting. If you want to read a slow-paced coming-of-age in a futuristic society, then this is for you, but not enough happened to pique my interest.
I was expecting so much more in this book. Granted, I didn't know much about it when I picked it up, but I knew it was a dystopian and the tagline promises a lot more than I ended up reading. This book was okay, but it's basically a coming-of-age with robots and not a whole lot happens.
This book begins in the year 2049 on Tania's eleventh birthday and follows her throughout her teenage years. Tania lives in a world where there are few human children left, because a majority of the population is unable to have children. Instead, they adopt robot children. They look human and act human, even think they're human, but each are owned by a government corporation called Oxted. And once they reach 18, Oxted takes them back.
This book is written in diary format, as Tania's diary. She starts it at age 11 and continues writting out the details of her life as the years go back. It's an interesting format and Tania's voice was very strong in the writing. She also wrote as if to a future race, which could be annoying, but I actually thought that made it more real. I would probably wonder that too, and who's to say it's not possibly? In fact, there are intervals throughout the book that are actually from a future race reading Tania's diary. This was interesting, but unnecessary to the story. It was also really confusing.
I like the idea behind the book behind the robot children, but this book was less high-stakes dystopian and more coming-of-age. I wasn't expecting that and while I did like the ideas the book had (sorry for being vague, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers), this book was extremely slow-paced. Not much happened at all, it was mostly details of Tania's life. Granted, she's in the future, but not a whole lot happens.
Tania, as a character, she's okay. I thought it was interesting seeing her grow and learn more about the world she was living in. She has her flaws, but she did feel real. I can't really say much about her without spoiling things, though.
As for romance, Tania kind of likes a guy throughout the book, but I really didn't feel anything from it. It was really meh.
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I wasn't overly impressed by this book. It has a very interesting idea, but it wasn't what I was expecting. If you want to read a slow-paced coming-of-age in a futuristic society, then this is for you, but not enough happened to pique my interest.
