This is the first post in a series I’m
doing where I pull over reviews from my blog I kept for a few months when I was
at university in 2015. I am going to be revisiting the books I reviewed back
then and comparing how my thoughts and views on them have changed.
First up is Alone by Robert J Crane and here’s
what I wrote in 2015;
This book is brilliant. It centres
around a girl called Sienna Nealon who has had what you could call an
unconventional upbringing. I’m going to mention now that this book deals with
some adult themes and emotions and a lot of violent imagery, which may not be
suitable for younger or easily upset readers. This book is more of a success
story though rather than focusing on where Sienna has come from it guides you
through all her accomplishments and struggles, with just the right amount of
reminiscence that you are able to fully understand where she comes from and why
she makes the decisions she does. The book takes you through her first time in
the outdoors, meeting her long-lost half-brother and finding a place where she
can actually begin to feel like herself.
This is one of the best science fiction
books I have ever read. This book reaches just the right balance between
action, emotion and sci-fi brilliance.
This book is part of a series called “The Girl In The Box” and if you
read the first one, you’ll need to be prepared to read all the others. They all
continue to tell Sienna’s story as it unfolds and it is truly amazing. Crane
has managed to create a real depth of character which can rarely be achieved in
these types of books. Sienna is one of the most stubborn, awkward, violent and
caring characters you will ever read a book about and this in combination with
Cranes writing style makes it a very entertaining and interesting book to read
which means that you really will fly through it, if not the whole series.
After re-reading the book now I still
agree with everything I said back in 2015. I feel a lot more anger towards
Sienna’s mother now for how she treated her and marvel at how Sienna is still
such a relatable character despite this. She is very impulsive yet still
manages to judge most of her decisions well after first arriving at the
Directorate, for example not creating a huge scene in the cafeteria when one of
the others there begins to call out her previous mistakes in front of everyone.
At the date of writing I believe there
are now 15 books in the girl in the box series and 29 in the following series
“Out of the box” which follows Sienna’s continuing journey with some of the
books focusing on other characters such as her brother Reed who we were
introduced to in this first book. If nothing else this is truly testament to
how popular Cranes books are and his devotion to his characters and fans. His
writing style is very smooth and he is able to use Sienna’s internal monologue
to really set the tone which helps him avoid any dull or flat spots in the
story. As someone who has read all of the first series and a good whack of the
second I can say there hasn’t been a bad book among them and I highly recommend
you give these books a go.
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