Outside

Outside gives us a glimpse at a fairly near-future dystopian England where the structure of society has fallen apart after widespread terror attacks. Riley was fortunate enough to live inside a Perimeter, one of a multiplicity of safe zones populated by the well-to-do. Walls keep those who have secure, and keep those who have not out.

But when her younger sister Skye is killed–murdered–Riley is determined that she must leave her protected home and go find the killer. Luc, her friend and her sister's crush, goes with her. They take an armored vehicle and drive off into the unknown.

I do love a good dystopian story! With Outside, Shalini Boland gives us a likable, if somewhat inconsistent, protagonist in Riley. (To be fair, when I was 17, I could be a bit inconsistent sometimes, too.) I love that she's desperate to find justice for her sister when the official investigation seems to be going nowhere. I want to smack her for running off without even a by your leave to her parents, because as a mom, I can imagine how her parents felt finding out she was gone. I love that she tries to resist her attraction to Luc knowing that her sister liked him. I don't really care for the fact that, in spite of her protestations, their relationship ramps up fast when it moves past friendship, without a lot of exposition or build-up. Zero to sixty in 5.2 seconds, give or take. But whether I want to hug her or shake her, Riley absolutely evokes strong feelings, and isn't that what a good character does?

The dual storylines woven together worked well for me. I wasn't sure who the second character was right off the bat, but the more I read, the more it started to come together. The religious zealotry aspect is realistically creepy, and for me, it was one of the most spine-tingling parts of the book. I can see there being people like that should a scenario like this befall our world.

Without going into much detail, the revelation concerning Riley's mother and what happened to Skye was a bit of a letdown. I mean, this is the first book in the series. Why do we have this huge question that's the driver of the book answered already? I can only figure we're being set up for something else in the other books. and please tell me it's going to be a humdinger.

Overall, this is a fair description of a future that isn't impossible to imagine for our society. It's perhaps not quite as heavy on the threat and danger as some dystopian stories I've read, but Boland's writing style is just so dang easy to read! I'm looking forward to the other books to see where she takes this.