The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

Author: Allegra Goodman
Genre: Dystopia
Rating: 8
Teach-ability: 6
Teachable Aspects: character, genre study, setting

I like Dystopia, I really do. The world that is created in the midst of a Dystopian novel is amazing, intricate and well planned. This book was no exception.

The book focuses on the childhood of Honor, a girl living in a world of the future where natural disasters have ruined the world that we are familiar with today, leaving just islands spotted among the maps that survivors now inhabit. Controlling these islands is a government known as Earth Mother, a controlling government that pushes for Safety and consistency in the islands that have been Enclosed, or shut off to the elements.

What made this book not a stunner for me like others I have read in the past is two-sided, I think. Part pacing and part plot. The book is, all over slow. The tail end of the book is action heavy which almost seems out of proportion to the rest of the book which is relatively slow. The book moves from slight action to slight action over the course of the book and ends with a short burst of heavy action, but left me wanting more. The pacing is something else that I had trouble getting around while reading the book. The first 100 pages or so take place when Honor is 10 years old, something that is very important to set up the book. However, from there the book fast forwards months and years to the highlights of Honor's childhood, skipping over the boring stuff and just focusing on anything important that happens. Although I cannot pinpoint or articulate it, I feel like this made Honor's character lacking in a way. She matures, she grows, she develops; but there is still something off about her as a character.

Speaking of her character...This is something that I really liked in comparison to other novels in the genre of YA Dystopian. Honor is a main character that wants to fit in. Unlike the many other female heroines of Dystopian past who are fighting against their worlds Honor just wants to be a part of the society like everyone else. She tries desperately to get her family to conform with her, but the tension between the beliefs of Honor and her family is the center of the novel.

I also thought that the world that Honor lives in was really artistically and intricately articulated. It is a world full of protocols and rules that make sense for Safety. The world has been padded and altered to make the most pleasant and Safe environment possible, and the means by which Goodman describes this is really interesting. Everything from the government to the ways in which the world runs--hours, days, months and years--is thought of and woven into a believable setting. The imagery conjured while reading this novel was precise and concrete. As a reader I got a great image of the island.

I was talking to one of my friends the other day because we were both finishing up our prospective books. She was dissatisfied with the ending of her book because it set it up leaving the reader with a sense that there would be a sequel in the works. It left enough out to continue the story. I've decided this is frustrating on both accounts, one, because you're left feeling as though the book you've finished hasn't really ended, and two, you have to chance that the ending that you've imagined waiting for the sequel is not going to be what you want, what you've imagined it to be. I think this book is the same way. The story definitely continues, with or without more from Goodman, but I definitely did not get the closure that I was hoping to get from the book.

Overall, it’s a good read. It's an interesting book on an interesting premise and overall I think that most any reader can find interest in Dystopian worlds which is why it is such a booming genre at the moment. I would recommend the book and I would probably use it in the classroom as well, especially as a genre study. It incorporates many of the important elements of Dystopian worlds and does it in a precise way. The book is great, I just think I got my hopes up before reading the book because I generally do fly though Dystopian books.