The Balance

by Neal Wooten

In a dystopian future, life hangs in the balance.

Piri is a nineteen-year-old boy who lives in a technological metropolis that rises above the clouds. But when an accident drops him out of the city, everything changes. At first terrified by the atrocious reality of life on the surface, including surviving gruesome creatures known as Scavs, Piri is soon mesmerized by the bond they have for one another. He also comes to understand his own feelings for Niko, the boy who rescued him.

In the end, Piri chooses love over comfort. But things are never as they seem. When he discovers just how far the city dwellers will go to maintain control, and the horrific truth behind an ancient and secret alliance, he will do everything he can to protect his new family—and disrupt the balance.

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, LGBT, Dystopia, Gay

230 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2014

About the author

Neal Wooten grew up on a pig farm on Sand Mountain in the northeast corner of Alabama before being dragged kicking and screaming to the snow-infested plains of the American Midwest. He now resides in Milwaukee with his wife and three dogs.

He is a columnist for The Mountain Valley News, an author, artist, and a standup comedian. His work has appeared in several anthologies and magazines.

He is the author of Reternity, a sci-fi novel based on the Bible, which has won eight national awards and named to Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011. His new book, The Balance, a gay-themed sci-fi novel, will be released by Bold Strokes Books in April 2014.

Reviews

[Banana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review at Smudged

I received a free copy of this book on netgalley in return for an honest review and quotes taken from this uncorrected version, subject to change in the final edition.

This book had so much promise, Unfortunately, the writing fell short and the story fell flat.

It is Piri's nineteenth birthday. Today is when he will begin his career and become a true adult in his society. On his way to experience the wonders of the entertainment level of the city above the clouds he resides in. Unexpectedly, the transportation device that he and his grandfather are in drops them from the city to the ground below.

Piri is thrown into an unknown world full of emotions and beliefs he has never been taught or experienced in his life. Piri quickly finds a family, friends, and a love interest and forgets about returning to his home in the sky. After becoming complacent and happy in this new world, Piri is taken back to the sky city and his eyes are opened up to the "balance" his city and the humans living on the ground are involved in. This realization leaves Piri with the decision of whether he should choose comfort or fight for what he believes is right and for the people he has grown to love.

The writing in this book was pretty terrible. Wooten did a fine job of telling and not showing us what was happening in the story, making the book a little unbearable to get through. Piri is immediately accepted into this society because he is believed to be a god-like figure. However, no one treats him like he is anything special after the first time he goes to their religious sermon. For some reason, young Ana sleeps in Piri's bed with him every night and no one thinks this is weird. It's pretty weird.

I will give Wooten this, the dystopian plot was interesting. Something bad happened. A society was built above the sky and the people living her, the "Fathers," are controlled (and controlling). Some humans have genetically mutated to become monster cannibals. And a balance has been found to keep everything working for the Fathers. The twist ending when Piri realizes that the Children (the non-mutated humans) are being sacrificed to appease the monsters was a good idea but it was poorly executed.

For a great idea but a misplaced execution, two stars.

[Jenni Frencham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wooten, Neal. The Balance.

Piri lives in the city in the clouds until one day his transport crashes onto the earth. He meets a people who call themselves the Children. They live a very different life from the one Piri left behind in the sky. And there are things the Children tell him that don't make sense to him, based on what he knows from his life in the city. When Piri is rescued and discovers the horrible truth behind the fate of the Chosen Ones, he knows he must do something to restore the balance on the earth.

SPOILER ALERT

I liked this story and found it a decent read-alike for books like The Giver and Swans and Klons. The City is where the privileged people live, and their lives are very strictly controlled. They are trained from a young age not to show any emotions. There's no physical affection between family members or couples. All people die at age 80, when they are too old to work or help raise their grandchildren.

The people on earth, the Children, serve those in the city by providing them with crops and volunteers who are chosen in a weekly ceremony. The Children are barely scraping by, but their lives are rich with family and market days and emotions. Also, the Children read from a Book that tells them the rules to live by. They even have a Westboro Baptist-esque subgroup of fundamentalists. The Book is very obviously paraphrased from the Bible, so readers coming from a Christian tradition may find the Children's religion offensive.

I enjoyed the dystopian part of this book, as well as Piri's inventions to help the Children. I liked that Piri is gay and marries Niko, but that it isn't a big deal in his society at all. There could easily be more books in this world, but this book can also stand alone, which I think is a good thing for a YA book.

Recommended for: fans of dystopian lit, young adults
Red Flags: some violence, mentions of cannibalism (the Scavs eat the Chosen, which is pretty obvious early on but some people may be unpleasantly surprised when they find that out)
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review is based on an advanced readers copy from NetGalley

In the future everything hangs on the balance…
Everyone in their place
Everyone playing their role
Until of course someone disturbs the balance...

Piri is nineteen years old, at an age where he will begin his career and an adult life. However when an accident see’s Piri plunge to the surface away from the metropolis in sky which he has always known as home, life for Piri becomes rather unexpected. Thrown into a world he never knew existed Piri must learn to not only navigate in this strange new society but also come to terms with how everything he sees and learns contradicts with what he was always told. From finding family, to making friends and falling in love, Piri finds life where he never knew it could exist. But nothing good lasts for ever and as Piri begins to learn the truth about the balance, he will be left no choice but to choose a side. New life or old life? Love or comfort? Piri has a place and a role in the balance will he choose that tow which he was born into or that in which he found? Will Piri tip the balance?


In dystopian fiction where anything is possible Wooten has taken his own unique and somewhat disturbing look into the void of the future. What a compelling and creepy read this one is. While I found that Piri wasn’t an engaging protagonist, he was actually quite boring until the very end, I was hooked enough by the plot to continue on and I am glad that I did, for the story Wooten weaves is spectacularly shocking and unpredictable. The biggest flaw I found was that the story took a while to really pick up, Piri’s stay on the surface dragged on for a while with very little plot to carry it, but once the truth about this dystopian society came to light the story became an additive page turning read. I will admit this story was not what expected when I started reading and I liked that it surprised me. I would have liked more depth to the characters and more exploration of their relationships, specifically between Niko and Piri with perhaps an alternate telling of the story between the two boys, but on the whole I enjoyed this read; it was unexpectedly good with an amazing plot twist at the end. The Balance is a fresh and twisted take on dystopian fiction and the human condition. Ultimately this is a love story of not just two people but of an entire society.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book free to review from Netgalley. It is a very poorly written YA dystopian novel. The idea is interesting and I was able to read the whole book, which is why I gave it a rating of 2 rather than 1, but the writing really is rather dreadful. In this book, nineteen year old Piri, who lives in a city in the sky connected to the earth by a very large column, is accidentally dropped to earth when a transport he is riding in is struck by lightening. He is rescued by a boy his age named Niko and taken to live with a group of the ground dwellers, who Piri did not even know existed. While Piri and the people who live in the city are small and pale skinned and blonde, Niko and the ground dwellers who call themselves "the Children" are darker skinned and speak the same English that the city dwellers speak, with a few Spanish words thrown in. The third group of people is the Scavs, large, and fierce and barbaric who paint themselves black with the "black stuff from the pits".
The world-building is incomplete partly because the writer does not name things. The city in the clouds is merely "the City", the flat round stone disks that make light are not named by the city people or the "Children", bees are not named but are referred to as "flying things with stingers" by the "Children" just to give a few examples. The grammar is poor and some words are misused - for instance the word "dramatic" was used where "traumatic" should have been used - twice.
In this book, religion is used to control and manipulate the poor, deluded "Children" and homosexuality is seen as normal and natural. I suspect that is why some people like the book - and why others will not like it. However, even if people are looking for that theme and really like it and want to read books that extol those concepts, it does not excuse the poor writing. The book ends with a possible cliffhanger and if the author intends to write any more books, I do hope that he takes some writing classes, gets an editor, and gives some thought to naming things in order to improve his stories.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! As a fan of YA dystopian books , I've probably read most that are out there. What I liked most about this once was how different it's premise and world is. Evolution gone wrong, religion gone wrong, love gone right. I especially loved the simple and open way in which TRUE love was dealt with. In the society favored by the reader, same sex love and marriage is as common place and accepted as heterosexual marriages. Yet, it was not the point of the book, not a controversial issue to be discussed and dwelled upon, it was just a fact of nature. I loved that and hope that most teen YA readers can take something positive away from that element in the book. I loved the characters, the problems and action and ultimate resolution. I only wish that it had been amuch longer book with more time spent once our hero finally took charge and understood what was really happening. I hope that there is a follow up to this book, just becuase I enjoyed being in that world. A sequel is not necessary for the reader to feel resolution. But it would be appreciated. I highly recommend this book to open minded fans of YA dystopia! You won't bedispointed.

[Mersini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book.

Unfortunately, it was not a particularly great book. It has it's moments, I suppose, but overall, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

For anyone interested, it's a futuristic dystopia, where some of humanity has gone to live in a city in the sky, where everything about the society is carefully regulated. But one day. A boy of nineteen, Piri, falls out of the sky and crashes into the Surface, where he meets Nicko and realises that he knows nothing about the truth of the city in the sky, or, in fact, the world.

The main thing is the writing; it is all tell and no show. There is no finesse, no style. As a result, characters are bland, boring and two dimensional. You feel no emotional attachment at all to them.

The world has potential, but it's rendered dull by the storytelling.

In all, I suspect this book might have a sequel, and it's not one that I would bother with.

[Tanya Cass · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant read, and I lingered at putting it down, so I finished in just a few days. The plot is well constructed, with enough foreshadowing to keep you guessing but not so much the ending was telegraphed. I enjoyed the indirect commentary on current events and characters (i.e. the Westboro Baptist Church) and very much appreciated the juxtaposition of the morals of the two groups we learn most about.

[Tanangi Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read THE BALANCE, I was put off by the 1st person, present tense narrative. But I decided to read it again knowing what to expect and I fell in love. The characters captured my heart, and the story had me hooked. If not for the narrative, this book would easily been a 5+ rating. Regardless, this is a book I'll happily read many more times.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea behind this story but the writing in the beginning was a struggle to get through. I just didn't care for his writing style but the story made up for it. The ending wasn't all picture perfect either which made it even better.

[Sam King · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. It kept my interest and the characters were people that I became interested in and enjoyed trying to figure out how it will end.

[Elisa Rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

2014 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)