Cody T. LuffReseñas

I'm sad to say that I could not finish this book. I usually love dystopian books, but I could not understand how the world in this book works.

If you can get past the gross factor, this is a powerful dystopian.

Set in a dystopic future, calories have become currency. In the farms, girls are raised to be meat, and manipulated by fear mongering women. In the farms, ordering an A ration, means that a fellow girl is killed and processed. Cynthia, accused of ordering an A ration is beaten by the other girls in the farm. In revenge, she orders A ration after A ration, forcing the deaths of a whole floor of girls. In punishment, she is force fed A ration after A ration by Ms. Glennoc. When the farm owner finds out, she turns out Ms. Glennoc and Cynthia to the streets.

This was a very odd world. I wish much more had been explained about the system. I spent most of the book cringing, yet I kept reading because I needed to know what happened next. I'm not sure I would re-read this book, but I would pick up another book by this author. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy as an Early Reviewer.

Maybe I'm jaded from watching and reading too much horror, but I didn't find this to be as shocking as a lot of other people did. There certainly is plenty of gore, and I can see how some might even consider it gratuitous, but it seemed rather par for the course for me. The story feels a bit like a typical grimdark dystopian, though it stands out for being entirely focused on female characters (in this world, all men are dead). I found the world-building to be frustratingly vague.

Overall this is the kind of book I would enjoy reading in the moment, but not one that will particularly stick with me down the line.½

Gritty, hard, and fast paced. Hard to read when eating, but impossible to put down

Imagine:

A decade’s-abandoned factory on the other side of town. You muster the courage to explore its interior. Only hints of light, you can’t see one spider’s web floating in a doorframe. It’s sticky lace prepped to envelope your face.

This is how I felt reading Ration. The web is Luff’s writing - difficult to shake off. Ration’s characters are dark and defined. From the cover art and synopsis, I expected a YA read. I was pleased to be wrong.

Ration is unique enough for your attention and difficult to forget. There are some well written pages here. I’m keen to read future releases from the author.½

I was provided a e-copy of this book by the Librarything Early Review program to give honest opinions about and appreciate the opportunity to do so.

In a rather disturbing dystopia world where food is both a political and personal weapon, “Ration” is consists mostly of a dual narrative between Cynthia, a young girl forced out of the apartments from which she dwells after being falsely accused of ordering a ration of food she was not entitled to, and Mrs Tuttle, one of the cruel overseers of the apartment complex. Combining elements of the kind of body horror present in “Wilder Girls” by Rory Power, with the sort of heavily regulated society of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,”, Cody Liff takes readers on an intriguing ride into a society where food becomes the human currency by which people live or die.
The writing was very self-assured, ably framing a tale that unwinds itself slowly while still maintaining the sort of literary motor that helps keep events interesting. Dystopian literature can be difficult to create something new, but Luff has done a terrific job in encompassing familiar elements (political repression and regulation) with original takes on how much of society takes for granted the idea of never-ending food supplies. In creating this just realistic enough to happen world, Luff truly succeeds in ratcheting up tension and making what happens here seem just enough of a remote possibility should events turn in certain ways.

Rather unique and frightening, Ration is quick, entertaining, and a rather sobering read that is ideally suited for those who can’t get enough dystopia in their reading resumes. Well worth the pick up!

I was provided an advance copy of this book by the publisher to review.

Ration is quite a unique book, it's a set in a world where all the men have perished, food is in short supply, girls are forced to live in communes where their food is strictly controlled, and as it turns out, these communes are farms. Yes, farms. The women are farming the girls, for food and body parts.

The story begins with the consumption of a 'A ration' the top tier of food ration, with the food in the commune being so tightly controlled, should the quota of these rations be exceeded it means a girl from that floor of the commune is then sent for 'processing'. I'm sure you can work out what that means. The girls from the floor from which a girl is taken then accuse Cynthia, a girl from the floor below of ordering the 'A ration' in question and punish her by stamping on her hands until they're mangled and broken.

This sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to the collapse of the commune and Cynthia being released and exploring the surrounding area in which we learn more about the world in which the story is set.

Despite not being a genre I'd typically read I found the story was quite enthralling the way it slowly unraveled a detailed albeit ghastly picture of the dystopian world in which it is set. Whilst there's considerable of violence and some coarse language none of these instances seemed out of place or over the top for the nature of the story being told.

I enjoyed it and I think readers who enjoy a good dystopian tale would too.½