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The Balance
If you had it all, what wouldn't you do to keep it?
Harry and Laura have both lost everyone and they owe the lives of their families to The Balance. They need to decide whether to replace partners and children or get the licence, but after being offered a different choice they are shown some of the secrets of their world. And they don't like it. But is there anything that they can do? And would they want to change the world even if they could?
Harry and Laura have both lost everyone and they owe the lives of their families to The Balance. They need to decide whether to replace partners and children or get the licence, but after being offered a different choice they are shown some of the secrets of their world. And they don't like it. But is there anything that they can do? And would they want to change the world even if they could?
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 3, 2016
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 28, 2018
Harry and Laura have both lost their families in this near future world. They have to decide whether or not to replace them, or apply for the licence in order to maintain The Balance. In this world, everyone has a "guest" between 17 and 55, and everyone must be counted. You "go over" at 55 to contribute to The Balance in a different way, on one of the Over Islands. The short story Resa explains more about someone in their 54th year.
It's immediately an interesting world. It's definitely familiar, yet there's reference to rationing within the first paragraph. Everyone is constantly counted and accounted for. There's clearly some touches of dystopia running through this but everyone is so content within their own utopia.
I really enjoyed how this world was revealed to us as Harry and Laura discovered that things aren't always how they seem. It didn't feel as though we were getting info-dumps but we had just enough information through Harry and Laura to understand what was going on. We also watch in growing horror as things are revealed that take things in rather a dark direction.
Harry and Laura are thrown together at the start through a counseling session to help with their decisions after losing their families. They're just average people. who have never had to question anything in their lives. They're given information that they're not expecting and asked to accept that their world is not what they believed. They reacted in ways that felt real and believable.
There is still quite a bit of mystery about the world by the end of this book, which I ended up really liking. We're not here to discover how the world reached this point, we're here to learn about Harry and Laura and how their lives change.
Pacing was pretty goof throughout. A bit slower at the start as we're learning about the setting and characters but the last half was wonderfully paced, moving faster and building upon itself as more and more about the situation was revealed! I absorbed the last half very quickly!
It's immediately an interesting world. It's definitely familiar, yet there's reference to rationing within the first paragraph. Everyone is constantly counted and accounted for. There's clearly some touches of dystopia running through this but everyone is so content within their own utopia.
I really enjoyed how this world was revealed to us as Harry and Laura discovered that things aren't always how they seem. It didn't feel as though we were getting info-dumps but we had just enough information through Harry and Laura to understand what was going on. We also watch in growing horror as things are revealed that take things in rather a dark direction.
Harry and Laura are thrown together at the start through a counseling session to help with their decisions after losing their families. They're just average people. who have never had to question anything in their lives. They're given information that they're not expecting and asked to accept that their world is not what they believed. They reacted in ways that felt real and believable.
There is still quite a bit of mystery about the world by the end of this book, which I ended up really liking. We're not here to discover how the world reached this point, we're here to learn about Harry and Laura and how their lives change.
Pacing was pretty goof throughout. A bit slower at the start as we're learning about the setting and characters but the last half was wonderfully paced, moving faster and building upon itself as more and more about the situation was revealed! I absorbed the last half very quickly!
February 22, 2018
The Balance is set in a future world where everyone from the age of 17 to 55 plays host to a ‘guest' - something that lives in their heads with them.
Sounds horrific, and it is - only it isn’t.
Harry and Laura are shown how their world - the world of The Balance - works, and have a chance to change things. But do they really want to? Can they go on living happily if they don’t?
This is a really clever book, which reveals just enough of the system to keep the reader transfixed.
The plot moves briskly and the prose is sharp. Really enjoyed reading it.
Sounds horrific, and it is - only it isn’t.
Harry and Laura are shown how their world - the world of The Balance - works, and have a chance to change things. But do they really want to? Can they go on living happily if they don’t?
This is a really clever book, which reveals just enough of the system to keep the reader transfixed.
The plot moves briskly and the prose is sharp. Really enjoyed reading it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews