Outside In - Maria V Snyder

Outside In – Maria V. Snyder

Pages: 326
Publisher: Mira INK (Mira Books)
Release Date: 18th March 2011

Other Titles by this Author: Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study, Storm Glass, Sea Glass, Spy Glass, Inside Out

There’s something outside.

It wants in.

I’m Trella. I used to be a scrub, cleaning the pipes and corridors of Inside. Then I found a whole world beyond the cube we live in and accidentally led a revolution against the Uppers. Now everyone is trying to figure out what happens next.

Except me. The fight’s over and I want my life back. I need to explore the new world I’ve found and work out exactly what’s going on with Riley, the Upper who helped me win the war.

But there’s something outside. And I need to step up. because once a leader, always a leader.

It’s coming.
Am I strong enough to stop it?

Outside In and its predecessor Inside Out are by far my favourite of Maria V Snyder’s novels. I love Trella and her world.

In the beginning of Outside In Trella summarises the events of the revolt and the Force of Sheep for new readers. And then Maria V Snyder does something that is completely genius: through Trella she directed readers to Inside Out by recommending that in order to properly learn the events you should read the file “ISBN 9780373210060”. Absolute genius, right?! It made me grin in awe.

For the first section of the novel I felt that Riley and Trella’s relationship moved a little too fast. It seemed a little out of place that Trella who is so untrusting and suspicious of everybody would just be instantly able to abandon this strong character trait for Riley jump feet first into a full on relationship with him. Though, now having finished the book, I realise that there was a period of time between the two novels that would have allowed them to grow closer and that Trella wasn’t completely comfortable with it anyway. By the end, I had every confidence in their relationship and what I wanted more than anything was for Trella to let Riley love her.

I loved all of the discoveries that Trella made about Inside and the nature of how it is run. Snyder has a skill with unveiling everything at exactly the right time and not overloading you with information. I do, however, wish I had been unloaded with information on their time scale. I still don't understand how that works and it’s actually fairly important to the novel so I think some of the urgency was lost for me. The discoveries, questions and decisions on who to trust outshone this though.

For me, the clash between the Outsiders and the Insiders seemed very brief. I realise that it was down to the nail for the characters as time was an issue, but I felt that it was brushed away very quickly. It was a little rushed. But minor issues aside, I’ve loved reading this series and I hope that Maria V Snyder will come back with more from Trella, Riley and Inside in the future. I know I’d be grabbing them straight off of the shelf if she did.

A huge thanks to Midas PR for providing a review copy.

Sophie