In this future-set novella by bestselling author Scott Westerfeld, Kieran Black lives in a "perfect" world. Disease and starvation have been eradicated, sleep is unnecessary, and it takes no time at all to go from the Bahamas to the moon. But now Kieran has to take Scarcity, a class about how people lived in the bad old days. And as if sitting through an hour of Scarcity every day wasn't depressing enough, it's final projects time. Each student must choose some form of ancient hardship to experience for two whole weeks. Kieran chooses having to sleep eight hours a night, which doesn't seem too annoying.Maria Borsotti has never thought much of Kieran, but she decides to take pity on him and help him out with his project. Soon, Kieran is sleeping and having vivid dreams, while Maria, whose Scarcity project is to give up all teenage hormone regulation, is experiencing emotions she never knew she had. As their assignments draw them closer together, they begin to wonder if the olden days weren't so bad. Maybe something has been missing from their perfect lives after all? (GoodReads).
So... I missed the "novella" aspect of this until Grad Student pointed it out to me. sigh, where has my head been lately? Either way, I actually enjoyed this little mini story, though lets be clear, character development in a YA novella is LOW. This is no O'Henry here. The concept and cover were so cool... I just wish there was more! Accepting that....
Originality: 10- the sad thing is this world is so cool, and this CONCEPT even cooler that I wish it was a full book!
Absurdity: 8- the poetry writing.. yawn/ gag me/ glad I am not a teenager anymore, so glad.
Paranormal Romance: 4- I wish it was more, but again, the book is so short, and we spend so much time on the sci fi aspect of awesomeness there isnt much development of the love.
Harry Potter-ness: 4- Again, such a cool idea. Mr Westerfield, take this idea and write us a full book!
I will definitely check this out, it would probably make a great Readathon selection!
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