Amy Lilwall

This novel is over 500 pages. It didn't have to be. I feel like there is an interesting and fast-paced disturbing dystopia hidden inside this over-long book. And I love big books, and I love dystopias.
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This novel is a dystopia--at least, it is for the Littlers. Unfortunately, they don't really understand that until the very end, and we don't get much of their perspective on the entire situation. We also don't get a lot of explanation about how the situation is resolving--just that it is beginning to (who's in charge? what steps are being taken?). We don't get a lot of information--is this worldwide? Just UK? Just England? Just part of England? Or what the timespan we are talking is, exactly--based on info at the end, I am guessing 20 years, with maybe 1 tops being covered in the novel. But really I think the novel covers 1-2 months and then certain flashbacks to the past.

What we do get is lots and lots of descriptive info of daily life. The first 300 pages is just background daily life information--so many points that seem important and come up over and over again (feather day, flakes, humcoats) don't really lead anywhere. Most of this is about Littlers, but also some confusing interludes of different Biggerers in their lives, and then of a different set of characters (and we slowly work out who they are), and some bears (I am still confused there, honestly). All of the different parts of the story just start. The reader is (presumably) supposed to put the different characters and their relationships together. What this book really needs is to be shorter. Everything really happens in the last 200 pages, and especially the last 100. With 300 pages of detail, I don't see why we couldn't have had some explanation as to the relationships between characters, the time frames, and so forth.

All in all, there were some interesting ideas here, but they were drowning in unnecessary repettive detail. 2.5 stars.
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Thank you to Point Blank for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (más)

I really liked the premise of this book, but the writing was too coy. In the effort to keep the reader from guessing too much too soon, Ms. Lilwall is too vague in her descriptions and explanations. It takes a long time to sort out the main characters and their relationship to each other which made for frustrating reading. Even at the end, I was still unsure of just what exactly had happened, which was a shame. I really liked the characters as I came to know them and wish I had a better grasp of their experience.… (más)

Amy Lilwall's novel, The Biggerers, is built on an extremely creative premise (the keeping of “clonables” should you need a body part). The story does tackle some of the best and worst of humanity, which can make for interesting story telling.

However, the writing is too sparse - an attribute I'm seeing as fashionable these days, but which I do not enjoy. In my opinion, this story is a bit difficult to become entranced by, unless you are one who truly loves speculative fiction. I'm giving it it 4 stars because I think it could be enjoyable if that is a style of fiction you enjoy, even if I didn’t.… (más)

I had a very hard time putting this down, often staying up far past my bedtime ... "just a few more pages!"
In a not-too-distant future, humans have scientifically created smaller people whom they keep and treat as pets. The Littlers can talk amongst themselves but do not communicate with their "Biggerers". The book is told from the points of view of the main Littlers, Jinx and Bonbon, as well as their "owners" Susan and Hamish. A couple other characters also have their stories told and once I figured out how those related to each other, and (more importantly) that their stories were not happening contemporaneously, I was able to understand the book much better. This is the main reason for a half-star off from a full five stars. The writing style and exposition is a little ambiguous? It's a good thing that we aren't just told all about the Littlers and how they came to be in some big info-dump, and it's good that the author wants to show rather than tell, and the method of doing so, having Susan watch a documentary about it when she can't sleep, is pretty ingenious, but...I don't know. The beginning of the book was very compelling but also confusing. The end was less confusing, but also slightly less compelling. Anyway, this is getting more critical than I intended. It was a great story. Really made me think about the nature of pets and how we treat them as well as what might be possible in the future with scientific technology around creating replacement organs and whatnot. You should read it. I already have a bunch of friends who want to borrow it just because they saw me reading it and asked what it was about.… (más)