Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

Inside Out is not my usual fare for recreational reading.  It's kinda sci-fi and plenty dystopian.  (All the politics involved with dystopia... migraine in the making.)  But I decided to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't too hard to get into and once I started- I couldn't put it down until it was finished.  The story follows a girl, Trella, who is a Scrub.  She cleans the vents of a place called Inside.  She believes that Inside is a large cube in which the scrubs and uppers live and work in.  Trella is one of the few scrubs who knows anything about the rest of inside other than the two lower levels where the scrubs live, packed in like sardines.  She roams freely through the vents, earning herself the nickname "Queen of the Pipes."  Then things in her life start to change and soon everything is spinning wildly out of control.  Trella meets an Upper named Riley when she falls through a grate in the vent and onto his couch.  She also ends up starting a rebellion and leading a revolution.  Trella may even have found her mother, the mother she never knew she had.  Everything changes for the Scrubs and Uppers of Inside- not just for Trella.

This was a really addicting read.  I started and finished in one night.  There are so many twists and turns in the plot that you are always second guessing your assumptions along with Trella.  The plot isn't obvious and there is a wealth of information learned along the way.  Trella doesn't set out to be a hero but she becomes one anyway.  As with the other few dystopian novels that I've read, there is a lot to be learned from this story.  The characters have to face tough decisions.  They have to sort out right from wrong in a difficult situation.  They have to fight for their lives and freedom.  There is a strong political undercurrent throughout which is typical of dystopian books.  I know my grasp of sociology and politics leaves me just as unsure of the right path as the characters are.  I highly recommend Inside Out for readers over the age of 13 (you have violence and clinical talk of reproduction and death). 

Inside Out earns 4 Fairies for a wonderful story with a Sheepy.