Kirkus Recommended Review – “…captivating and memorable…makes for supremely fun reading…this action-packed ride through a grim but fascinating world should delight fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent and leave many waiting impatiently for the sequel.”
Legend meets Leviathan in this gritty dystopian fiction by debut author Sophia Elaine Hanson. All citizens within the soaring black walls … Hanson. All citizens within the soaring black walls of Revinia have metal Singers grafted into their skulls at birth. The parasitic machines issue a form of auditory hypnosis called The Music, which keeps their minds malleable and emotions flat. All artistic expression—especially real music—is strictly prohibited.
On the edge of the city, nineteen year old Ronja struggles to support her cousins and disabled mother. A chance meeting leads to her kidnapping by an underground resistance striving to preserve the human spirit. Violently severed from her Singer by the brash young agent Roark, Ronja revels in her newfound freedom until the consequences of her disappearance begin to unfold.
The first in a trilogy, Vinyl is a story of loyalty, passion, trauma, human connection, and the extraordinary power of real music.
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This dystopian book isn’t that far off the mark. You can imagine how easily our phone addicted society could become a world were we are mind controlled.
Ah, another dystopian novel. But this one is actually pretty good. It is a little confusing at first, until you realize what is going on, but then it really picks up.
Ronja and her mother and two cousins are barely subsisting with Ronja working two jobs. Her mother, Layla, has been genetically altered as a form of punishment and is an alcoholic. The lower class of people in Revinia have implants in their ears that controls their actions and feelings The rich and the ruling class don’t have implants. If you do or feel something you shouldn’t, The Music punishes you, sometimes to death.
Ronja gets kidnapped and taken to a rebel stronghold by a member of a rebel force and is dying from The Music. To save her life, a doctor cuts off her right ear to remove the implant. Ronja finds out that nothing she has been told or taught is the truth. The so called war that caused Revinia to secede never happened. It was all a power play. The Conductor, who controls The Music and Victor Westervelt who makes the implants, walled the city off from the rest of the world and rule their little kingdom with iron fists. If you step out of line, you are either changed into a mutt or killed by the implant.
Ronja decides to go back to get her family. They have been taken to Red Bay, a research facility out in the country. While trying to get them out, Ronja is betrayed and she and her friends are captured, one of them dies.
I plan on reading the next two books in this series. If they hold up like this one, it will be well worth the effort. Good story.
This was one of those books that sucked me in because of a gorgeous cover (or covers, as I saw the entire series all at once and all of the cover photos are amazing) and then had me sold as soon as I learned about the premise. In this case, that premise is pretty simple: a dystopian world where music is used by those in power to subdue and control the population. As basic as that premise might sound, it’s an intriguing one, so I dove right into this with great enthusiasm.
I loved how that simple concept carried over into every aspect of the story and impacted not only the way the characters interact with their society, but also other key aspects of the world and plot in ways both big and small, from the way rebellion develops to the way the enemy seeks to enforce greater control over the population and even right down to the way characters speak. It’s a really interesting concept, and the author did a good job of weaving details into the setting in imaginative ways to make it feel more authentic.
I also loved the characters and was engaged with them throughout the story. There were some who I wish had been fleshed out a little more or who I wish I had gotten to know a little better throughout the story, but hey, that’s what sequels are for, right? Although there were a few tiny parts of the story that kind of broke my suspension of disbelief or seemed to not quite fit with the information we had been given before, they were just small things and didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story.
One of the biggest strengths of this book is the writing itself. The author has a couple of poetry books out as well, and there is poetry and song used in this book (entirely fitting given the musical themes). Some of that poeticism is woven into the narrative as well in descriptions and the emotional experiences of the characters, but it’s never done in such a way that it feels overly flowery or out of place. The writing style works really well and made for a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. I look forward to reading more about this world and these characters in the next two books.
Within the pages of Vinyl, Sophia Hanson has created a world of both beauty and humanistic horror. Her eloquent writing style draws readers in and refuses to let them go. In this supressed world where the Music reins, her characters grow and develop as they discover what freedom really is. Fast-paced, dramatic, action-packed and creatively unique—
Loved It!!!
Enjoyed it but a persuasive grammar error repeated many times throughout the book was distracting and detracted from the experience.
Apocalyptic setting with mind control. Rebellion is at hand.