The Other Side of the Island

Well, we�??ve finally gone and pissed off Mother Earth. We finally mucked up the planet enough and The Flood was sent to put us in our place. Never fear, because the Corporation and the Earth Mother are here to save the day! ƒ??The Other Side of the Islandƒ? by Allegra Goodman takes place in the eighteenth year of Enclosure (where itƒ??s always sunny and green under the dome), long after Mother Earth dumped on us in the form of the Flood. This is Honorƒ??s story (silent H, which is a no-no, since she was born in an H year, and, you know, we should be able to hear that H). Her name alone already gives you a good idea of Honorƒ??s parents and their subversive ways. Iƒ??m not going to dance around it; this book is show more depressing. Allegraƒ??s family is forced to move to Island 365 from the North (a wild place and full of Partisans-dissenters) by the Corporation, and thus begins the gradual muting of her worldƒ??s colors and the end of her familyƒ??s personal freedom. I love Ms. Goodmanƒ??s use of dark humor here, especially when reading excerpts from their ƒ??educationalƒ? pamphlets. Itƒ??s a life full of structure, propaganda, and everything and everyone in its place, and the story is told in a fairly straightforward, uncomplicated manner, and it really works here. The Corporation reminds me of my Homeownerƒ??s Association except I havenƒ??t known them to ƒ??disappearƒ? anyoneƒ??s parents for not keeping the weeds out of the tree well. At least not yet. show less

The thing I liked best about this book is the characters. The book is filled with vibrant well-written characters. I was absorbed into the book and sometimes caught myself pronounces the H in Honor and even said Not Allowed or Objector the way a young child says a swear for the first time.
I really loved Honor. She was so innocent and willing to believe anything everyone said that I fell instantly in love with her. It was painful to have to see her slowly drained of everything that made her Honor and I watched helplessly as another plot twist would come up and she would adapt to that new way of being and forget who she had been. She changed so much over the course of the book but ultimately found herself again.
I also liked that the show more author slipped in the bits of the history book as Honor's homework because it lets the reader catch up with what happened to get humans to this point without overwhelming her.
However I have to say that I thought Honor's running off into the woods was unrealistic. She might have left Helix and Quin behind but it seemed uncharacteristic and she should NOT have been able to survive out there. She knew nothing of surviving in a wild fores and there wasn't enough food even if she had known where to find it. Also some moments in the book were predictable like in a movie when the music changes and you know something bad will happen. I knew she would see her mother at the bakery and I knew her parents would be gone that day when she got home. The Pratts and her father being alive I did not suspect at all though.
Overall I give it 3 and 3/4 stars. show less

This book is not at all what I was expecting, where I was expecting a typical teenage drama type book set in a dystopian future, I get a well thought out story about fitting in in, about figuring out who you are, and whats important.

Its also about a mystery corporation, drugs that affect memory, and lies, that may, or may not be true. Its about weather control (kind of) and what is safe.

The first half of the book was great - we get Honor trying to fit in at her school, following the rules. Her parents don't follow the rules, and Honor is very frustrated by this.. she just wants to fit in. We get hints about what the "Corporation" is doing, but its fragmented, told from a point view who doesn't know very much about the world nor is told show more very much about the world. Its the second half that gets weird... It reminds me of that 70's TV show where a man is on this island, given a number for a name, is surrounded by odd people, and drugged at every opportunity. The story became surreal, other worldly. I liked the book up until the end. The ending suddenly stops and the author writes a note explaining why it suddenly stops (its up to you, dear readers, to decide how it ends). It was incredibly jarring, not very nice, and made me quite angry... even adding one extra chapter would have helped immensely. show less

[October 2011]
Just re-read this, and found it more engrossing the second time through--which tells me it's better than a lot of the recent crop of dystopias. Still, the inconsistencies, and I still had a moment of "what??" when I hit the line about "she knocked back an arrow." No, you knock back drinks; you nock arrows. Arrrgh. Anyway.

Honor is 10 years old when her family moves to Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea. Her parents tell her it's an adventure, moving to this place, where they have no jobs and no money and everything is regulated by the Earth Mother and the Corporation. Honor desperately wants to fit in with the girls at her new school, but it's hard with parents like hers--parents who aren't willing to do the things they're show more supposed to, parents who have a second child, parents who name her Honor instead of a name with a proper "H" sound for her year--a name like Helen, or Hortense, or anything besides Honor. Eventually her parents are busted for their crimes (not a huge spoiler; it's pretty obvious from the beginning) and Honor finally gets wise to the world. WIth the help of her best friend Helix, of course.

Post-apocalyptic in that the planet is mostly destroyed; what's left are islands all over. We get infodumps a lot in the beginning as Honor is studying for the entrance exam for the school, and as infodumps go, they're pretty well integrated into the story, so kudos for that. This is more a dystopia, though; the Corporation controls absolutely everything, including the weather and the stars in the sky. Deviations from the norm are not tolerated; books are sanitized to eliminate any sad content or mention of things like bad weather; people who do not fall in line are drugged to the gills and given menial jobs.

Similar to the forthcoming Eye of the Storm (Kate Messner) for control of weather, Secret Under My Skin (McNaughton) for classism and societal control, Inside Out (Snyder) for classism, work assignments, and discovery of secret, forbidden spaces. Middle school level, maybe grades 6-9? A little more advanced than City of Ember, but not a taxing story by any means.


[January, 2009]
Looking at the other reviews of this book, it looks like you either love it, or think it's okay. I'm on the latter bench. I think it's a great dystopian book for slightly younger readers (middle school?) but it didn't grab me the way I wanted it to. The world, as intriguing as it is, never felt as real to me as (f'rex) Exodous, or even The Secret Under My Skin. I don't think we saw enough of the other characters--I'd have liked to have seen more interaction early on with Helix--and as a result, I never really locked onto anyone as the "identity" character. Oh, I feel for Honor, certainly--what pre-teen hasn't gone through the struggle to blend in with her peers?--but I never connected with her.

As sci-fi goes, this will be a pretty easy sell, and I really didn't hate it--I just didn't love it, is all. Add in a couple of inconsistencies along the way (a classroom pet goes missing after a storm, but then is around to cause a ruckus soon after?) and I'm going with around 3.5 stars. show less

Another dystopia! This one reminds me a lot of The Giver, but with a clearer setting, more information about how this place has come to be, and actually more realistic options for the people in the story. Honor and her parents have been reassigned to live on Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea. Her parents don't quite fit in, and neither does she in this extremely regulated place. In their first apartment, the Neighborhood Watch arrives to tell them that they are not allowed to sing Honor to sleep to make her feel better in this new place. Although the island is peaceful, it is difficult following the rules and being obedient to Earth Mother, the corporation that now runs the planet and regulates all life and events, including the weather. show more Honor meets Helix, who also is interested in more than what the people on the island are being offered. Slowly, Honor and Helix discover a horrible truth about life on the Island: one way or another, people who are unpredictable or different vanish, and they don't ever come back. This one is a good companion novel for The Giver in 6th grade, but also will work well with the Holocaust curriculum in 8th grade (the idea of controlled society, getting rid of those who are different, propaganda, etc). 6th grade and up. show less

Honor Greenspoon lives in a world where the polar ice caps have melted, destroying what we know as continents, leaving only islands dispersed across the earth. Earth Mother and the Corporation have numbered the Islands and moved all the survivors to ones deemed proper for colonization. At the age of ten, Honor and her parents are moved to Island 365 where she attends the Old Colony School. She doesn't fit in. All the other girls from year H have names from the list like Helena and Hester. Honor's H is silent. To make matters worse, she doesn't know as much about goegraphy, climatology, and New Weather as the other girls. When she has to recite, they all laugh at her. Honor's parents aren't helping. While everyone else dresses in plain, show more neutral colors, the Greenspoons wear colorful clothing, even black. And they are always staying out past curfew. When Honor's mother has a baby and doesn't give her second child back to the community, it's the last straw for Honor. At thirteen, when Honor's brother start's school, she decides she will do anything to fit in. She learns her recitations, studies all of Earth Mother's writings, and acts like the other girls who make fun of the orphans whose parents were Taken. But when an old friend is suddenly seen in orphan's overalls, Honor has to wonder what the fate of her nonconformist parents will be. How long will it be before she, too, is an orphan? And whose side will she choose if she is? The Other Side of the Island is a fresh take on conservationist dystopia, rife with plot twists and well-rounded characters. It is a science fiction that feels that it could be on the horizon, and a coming of age story that holds true in any generation. Compelling from page one, this is a novel that paints a terrifying, well-imagined portrait of the future and asks all the right questions. show less

I'm harsher on this than other books, simply because these types of novels are my favorite, dystopian world building, coming of age, growing to realize that what you've been told your entire life is wrong...

This fell flat for me. I almost felt like I didn't know what story the author was telling. Is this the parent's story, or the child's story? I never felt invested in either. I kept feeling angry at the parents, recklessly putting their children's lives in danger, in most circumstances I admire the character who plays within the rules, and takes those rules and slightly bends them to his or her own benefit. Not the couple who ignore the rules and then get plucked out of their children's lives leaving them to fend for themselves.

I saw show more very little character growth in Honor, her as a ten year old and her as a fourteen year old were the same. Too much of the book felt like "here is an example of why the society is bad" "hey look an incidence of control", the society was never shown as evil, and instead of realistic subtlety, it just felt not fully fleshed out. I had a hard time believing that these "orderlies" were fully brainwashed into doing complex tasks with no rebellion, but Pamela could send a code in base two to her daughter. The ending wrapped up very quickly and easily, with no sense to me of immediate danger.

I guess I am enumerating the flaws because they so easily don't have to be there. It felt more like a draft to me than a finished book. Some more focus, attention to audience and which story exactly should be told. I think I should try the author's adult books, I think I might find ther focus matching the writing there. show less