all these things i've done...

All These Things I've Done

Gabrielle Zevin

Sixteen year-old Anya becomes the head of a mafia family after her parents are both murdered by rival gangs. Although Anya is embroiled in the criminal world, she is determined to keep her brother and sister out of the mafia family, but her father's relatives aren't so keen to let them go. When Anya's violent ex-boyfriend is poisoned with contaminated chocolate – chocolate that is produced illegally by Anya's mafia family – she is arrested for attempted murder and sent to the notorious jail on Manhattan Island.

Eventually she is freed by the new D.A. in town, who believes she has been framed. But this D.A. is the father of Win, a boy at school to whom Anya feels irresistibly drawn, and her freedom comes with conditions. Win's father wants to be mayor, and he can't risk having his ambition jeopardised by rumours spreading that his son is seeing a member of a notorious crime family. Anya knows she risks the safety of her family by seeing Win again, but the feeling between them may be too strong to resist...

like the large majority of YA at the moment, this story is predominately a love story.

we can forgive it for that though, because mixed in with all the urst (no matter what MS Word tells me, urst IS a word: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=urst) and predictability is actually a rather good story about a girl who is mixed up in the family business and is just trying to do the right thing.

Zevin has built a rather clever world to set her story in. it’s a dystopia (you know how I love a good dystopia) set in New York City, but it’s not too dystopian. like a good cocktail, it’s got just the right mix of reality and fiction to give it just the right balance. mmm… cocktails…

if you’re new to the dystopian thing, this is a good starting off point because you don’t have to stretch your imagination muscles too far *flexes*

Zevin creates a world of atmosphere with the 30’s chic, the grittiness of the environment - central park is a wasteland, and the museum of natural history is a night club, and the fact that our heroine, Anya, is the head of a family of mobsters. you actually have to keep reminding yourself that this is set in the future because the world is so infused with old school glamour.

the love story between Win and Anya is a bit of an obvious will-they-wont-they-of-course-they-will scenario that we have all seen before. but the story really moves beyond the forbidden love to be enriched by the greater struggles that Anya faces and touch on elements of right and wrong.

Anya is torn between doing the right thing by her family and struggling to find a place for herself. the story really comes down to can a good girl from a bad family keep all her promises and still be a good girl?

keep in mind also that her ‘bad family’ makes illegal chocolate. sinister stuff.

my favourite part would have to be the ever present lure of the prohibited substances – no coffee, no chocolate. it’s like hell, but less appealing. also books are almost non-existent, which will hopefully be a future i never see, and is just another clever way Zevin explores the dystopia genre.

i also love that Anya is practical. none of this running away with my fantasies overly mushy twilight-esq knight in shining armour crap. she’s a tough girl, and we like tough girls don’t we? *nods*

the only real negative thing i can really say is that it didn’t change my world, you know? it wasn’t absolutely can’t put it down amazing, but it was an entertaining and good quality read. it's also something a bit different from the plethora of fairies and werewolves that are currently dominating YA.

so go forth and get your dystopia on. and eat some chocolate while you’re doing it…