Children of Paranoia by Trevor Shane
Summary: all wars have rules
rule #1: no killing innocent bystanders
rule #2: no killing anyone under the age of eighteen
break the rules, become the target
Since the age of eighteen, Joseph has been assassinating people on behalf of a cause that he believes in but doesn’t fully understand. The War is ageless, hidden in the shadows, governed by a rigid set of rules, and fought by two distinct sides — one good, one evil. The only unknown is which side is which. Soldiers in the War hide in plain sight, their deeds disguised as accidents or random acts of violence amidst an unsuspecting population ignorant of the brutality that is always inches away.
Killing people is the only life Joseph has ever known, and he’s one of the best at it. But when a job goes wrong and he’s sent away to complete a punishingly dangerous assignment, Joseph meets a girl named Maria, and for the first time in his life his singleminded, bloody purpose fades away.
Before Maria, Joseph’s only responsibility was dealing death to the anonymous targets fingered by his superiors. Now he must run from the people who have fought by his side to save what he loves most in this world. As Children of Paranoia reaches its heart-in-throat climax, Joseph will learn that only one rule remains immutable: the only thing more dangerous than fighting the war. . .is leaving it.
Here is the trailer:
You can read an excerpt HERE.
My Thoughts: So … what do I think about Children of Paranoia? Good question. Well, it was slower than I’d expected – at least at first. But it picked up a lot, and the ending was fabulous. Honestly, the ending is my favorite part.
The premise is interesting. There’s a War, and both sides think they’re right, of course. It’s a secret war to anyone not in it. Bystanders are safe. Children are safe.
The most interesting thing is that most of this book is written as a journal. A journal written by Joseph for Maria. I kinda like that. It’s a unique way to narrate a very unique story.
I’m honestly not quite sure about genre. I’ve seen this book labeled dystopian, but I’m not buying it. When I think of dystopian, I think of overbearing government that runs every little facet of its citizens’ lives. I didn’t get the impression that was how it worked here. Society seemed to be generally like today, just with the secret war being waged. The people involved in that have their lives very much run by others – those higher up in the ranks – but even they aren’t told what to eat, given exact portions, and other such things. Yes, they are a slave to their cause, but they aren’t without choices. Perhaps I don’t fully understand what the dystopian genre is, I dunno. But, based on my (admittedly somewhat limited) “experience” with it, Children of Paranoia doesn’t fit. For the record, this in no way affects my opinion of the book, I just though I’d get that out there. Hopefully prevent anyone expecting a dystopian environment similar to The Hunger Games, Delirium, or Matched from being disappointed.
I must say that I found myself quite disappointed in Dutton. There were some considerable editing errors that I just couldn’t get around. I expect Dutton, an imprint of Penguin, to be close to perfect. I expect these major publishers to get it right. There were numerous instances where an article (a, an, the, etc.) was missing, making the text awkward. There was even one instance where a sentence was very confusing. After reading the one line several times, I gave up and skipped it. And then, the biggest one for me, there were instances of a wrong word being used – more than once. In this case, “sooth” was used when it should have been “soothe.” I could see it happening once, maybe. But it never once was right. (And, no, I do not have an ARC. I have a hardcover copy.)
The grievous editing errors aside, Children of Paranoia is an interesting story with a very unique premise – and narrative style. It builds in intensity – starting somewhat low key with foreshadowing sprinkled in and ending up on a quite intense note. Will I read this again? Maybe, if I feel I need to refresh my memory before starting the sequel – which I am very much looking forward to.
Source: Received through Crazy Book Tours for review.
Read It: Get your own copy HERE.
About the Author: Trevor Shane lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son. This is his first novel, and the first in the trilogy. Connect with him online:
Tour Info: For the main page for this blog tour, including more reviews of this book on other blogs, visit the tour post HERE.
Challenges: Counts for 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011.
FTC Disclosure: All items reviewed were either obtained by me for my own enjoyment or sent (from the author, publisher, publicist, via tour sites, etc.) in exchange for an honest review. I receive no monetary compensation for my posts. All opinions expressed are my own.
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I was so excited to read this, the premise so engaging by the sound of it. I soon realised most were saying dystopian, I am not a fan so slowly this is coming off my Wishlist.
The ending seems like it won you over.
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I really don’t think it’s dystopian. More like action, thriller, something like that.
It being a thriller is what got me, I love new unique thrillers. I am truly on the fence.
Hi! (this is from the author so all biased caveats apply) – Dystopian is very hard to define. In the most narrow sense it is about a future society with an oppressive centralized government (think 1984 or the Hunger Games). That is definitely not Children of Paranoia. Children of Paranoia is harder to classify (perhaps a thriller with dystopian undertones; see here for a blog post sent to the Proud Book Nerd about Children of Paranoia’s genre mix: http://rantsnscribbles.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-tour-trevor-shane-guest-post-on.html). The weird thing is, while (happily) most people really like Children of Paranoia, a couple have disliked it because they thought it was too dystopian and a couple have disliked it because they thought it wasn’t dystopian enough. Only one way to find out what side of the fence you’ll be on, eh?
Thanks to Pour Book Nerd for the thoughtful review (and for teaching this Ivy League graduate lawyers how to spell “soothe” – seriously).
Thank you for commenting, Trevor! I love when authors pop in.
You’re right about dystopian as a genre, but then I find many genres hard to define. As I mentioned in my review, the way the “sides” in the war acted did feel very dystopian, but not society as a whole. I think it’s quite interesting how different opinions are simply regarding what genre it is, let alone reception of the book as a whole. I am very much looking forward to finding out where you’re going with this series!
As for sooth vs. soothe, I don’t blame you one bit. That’s something any editor worth working with should be able to catch – on the FIRST read. Given that Dutton is one of the bigger publishers out there, such errors surprise me quite a lot. (And, for what it’s worth, this is not the first time I’ve seen such grievous errors make it into a final printing of a Dutton book.) Oh, and, yes, I can say this because of my own editing experience!
I suspect the second book will be even more of a thriller, but that’s just a guess. It’s completely based on the quite thrilling end to this one!
Only one way indeed Trevor
thanks for responding. I am following the tour to get a better feel.
I was in the minority for not being a fan of the Hunger Games.