Hello, beautiful people! Welcome back to a new review! For this review, I get into The Ship by Antonia Honeywell, a dystopian book that mostly takes place on a ship meant to take a load of survivors to a better place in hopes of creating a new society. Following the perspective of a teen passenger whose parents started the ship, we see the world’s difficulties through her sheltered eyes.
Main Characters:
Lala Paul: Our main teen character, whose parents have hidden her from the ugliness of the world’s downfall. When they go on the ship, her world is rocked by the culture shock, and she starts to see that maybe things and the world itself aren’t always the way they seem
Michael Paul: Lala’s father, who is the captain of sorts of the ship of survivors, spent lots of time collecting and selecting the 500 people for the boat, all there with a purpose, the purpose, however, is unknown
Anna Paul: Lala’s mother, who worked with her husband to create the ship, is aware that it could bring turmoil for the family as they are breaking away from the government, but hopes to create a better world for people
Tom: A teen boy that Lala meets on the ship and becomes the object of her fixation, also tries to shield Lala from the world he was heavily exposed to
My Review
Going into The Ship by Antonia Honeywell, I was excited to see how the book would play out, as I love a good apocalyptic dystopian book. Given that the book takes place mostly on a ship which houses 500 of the most qualified people left in the world, I thought it would be a pretty interesting read with a plot that differed from others. I think the premise of the book was really good and interesting, but the way it played out was not my favourite, and I didn’t love a lot of the characters I came across throughout the book.
When the world is sent into a spiral and the government is desperate to keep all it has to itself Lala is growing up in a world where being a citizen and having ID is the most important thing you could have (a little eerie for today huh?) but sheltered by her parents is heavily unaware of the privilege she holds. Without her knowledge behind the scenes, Lala’s parents, Michael and Anna, have been planning what they think will save what good there is left in the world. The government is strict with food rations and other supplies, so it takes the couple a long time to collect the people and prepare. Once they do, the family and 500 of the best people to come aboard toss their ID’s into the sea, and leave in hopes of creating or finding something better for themselves. Early on, developments call for major changes in the travel and Lala, who has been fed with a silver spoon most of her life, is forced to deal with a world and reality she could never imagine. Starting to question the destination for their travels, Lala unearths secrets that could send the whole plan into ruins. Also challenged along the way by Tom a sweet young man who, unlike Lala, has seen the uglier parts of the world. Challenging her but also bringing her comfort, Lala must work to figure out who she is in the place that she never realized she was in all along.
The story had potential—an interesting dystopian setup, a confined setting that could have created tension and urgency. But instead of delivering a fast-paced, gripping read, it dragged. And the biggest culprit? The main character, Lala. Look, I know she is a teenager, but god was she hard to like in this book. It honestly wasn’t the fact that she challenged people around her and had a dynamic mind; it was the fact that she was so bratty and rude. I am very much a character person, and when I struggle to like the main character, I find it hard to be interested in what’s going on with the book because she’s just so mean. Again, I get that she is a teen and in all reality, she probably played the role very accurately, but for me, a character like her just didn’t call for the setting. Her complete unawareness of what’s going on around her is kind of infuriating. I’ll give it to her that it isn’t totally her fault; her parents played a role in that, but once she does become exposed to the real world, she continues to make really odd, selfish choices and kind of just does whatever she wants. I think if she were a touch more caring and empathetic, it would have been easier to want to follow her along. It doesn’t ruin the book or anything, but it does make it hard when you want to feel for her, but then she just goes and does another questionable thing that only meets her needs. I may be being a bit harsh, but I just didn’t vibe with her.
Overall, it’s not the worst book I have read, with an interesting and dynamic plot to keep you wanting to read. I think just having so many selfish characters made it a hard read. Not all of them were, but a lot are, and it just made it hard, given that you kind of want to root for the characters in a book like this, and most of the main ones made some very weird choices. I think having the plot play out mostly on the boat was enjoyable, but there were times when I got bored. However, when we were taken back on land through past perspectives, I didn’t really find them super enjoyable, so the boat parts arguably were the most riveting. All in all, I gave the book a 5/10 rating. I personally wouldn’t recommend it, but I get why others like it and have given it some better ratings. I think if you do check it out you won’t be disappointed or anything, it just won’t be the best read you’ve ever picked up.
*** Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know how the book ends ***
The book ends with it being exposed that Lala’s father never actually had a destination for the crew, and planned for them to live off the food they had for a few years and then just die on the boat if the world never fixes itself. I think it’s because maybe he didn’t want to be surrounded by all the poor people, but that’s just a personal view, or even eventually become poor himself. Lala exposes the secret and then has to make a decision: will she die on the boat or go out in the world without an ID and try to figure things out? She decides to leave the comforts and arguably comfortable death of the ship and step out into the world, deciding she has more to see and live for. I will say from all my earlier judgments about Lala that the ending did make me like her more, as she kind of shed some of her earlier issues and stepped out into the world with a more realistic perspective. Not a bad ending, and I think the fact that there was never a plan for them to dock the ship was really telling for the type of man Lala’s father was and all the lies he would tell to seem like a great man.
Thank you for checking out this review. I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to sign up for my email list to be the first to know when I release a new review!
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