A review by kyarabereading
MARTians by Blythe Woolston

dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It’s a shame this book wasn’t longer because it’s a really interesting premise that I believe could have been taken a lot further. I think if it was a bit longer, we would get that opportunity to flesh out those characters and their stories. We would get to learn more about this world they’re in. Something about it felt slightly incomplete to me. It felt like there were whole plot points that could have been explored a lot further.

But I do think Woolston achieved plenty in the 224 pages she worked with. Considering this book was written a little under a decade ago, I couldn’t believe how on point it is with its exaggerated version of where society could be headed under a capitalist surveillance state. 

A lot of the things she wrote about are things we see today due to capitalism - climate change, lack of individualism, people assigning their worth solely to their productivity, not having time or money to have a life outside of work, push towards high consumerism even during times of extreme struggle, the criminalization of homelessness, etc. 

And I think the thing that I appreciated the most is that all of this is told through the lives of totally ordinary people. Zöe isn’t going to be this dystopian world hero - she’s just a girl who feels powerless against what’s happening in the world around her, a girl who is just trying to survive, a girl who just wants to find her own piece of happiness in a very tragic world. 

Aspects of the book I was kind of half-and-half on…
  • The plot was pretty interesting and hooked me in though without saying too much, there were moments in the plot that felt a bit ridiculous and lost me because of that.
  • I kind of fell in love with Woolston’s distinct and strange writing/narrating style. I think the book does feel very “martian-y” in that sense. Like this is how you would expect people to react to things, to communicate, to see the world when they’ve been groomed their whole lives to keep the capitalist machine going. 
  • More on the incomplete feel of the novel: I think this works well as this short novel that takes a peak into this person’s life & that’s it. I feel like this novel feels like the start of something for Zöe that we don’t necessarily get to see and that’s ok. However, I do wish we could have seen more of a change in her throughout the novel - especially because during this time she’s experiencing a lot of changes and doing a lot of reflecting. I thought it would have a bigger impact than what we got to see

Not my favorite book I’ve ever read, but it’s definitely interesting & I enjoyed the social commentary it provides. I liked it more than I expected.
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