Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

“Walls have ears.
Doors have eyes.
Trees have voices.
Beasts tell lies.
Beware the rain.
Beware the snow.
Beware the man
You think you know.
-Songs of Sapphique” 
-Incarceron

Okay, so before I go on a long rant about this book, here's Fisher's synopsis:

"Imagine a living prison so vast that it contains corridors and forests, cities and seas. Imagine a prisoner with no memory, who is sure he came from Outside, even though the prison has been sealed for centuries and only one man, half real, half legend, has ever escaped. 
Imagine a girl in a manor house in a society where time has been forbidden, where everyone is held in a seventeenth century world run by computers, doomed to an arranged marriage that appals her, tangled in an assassination plot she both dreads and desires. 
One inside, one outside
But both imprisoned.
Imagine a war that has hollowed the moon, seven skullrings that contain souls, a flying ship and a wall at the world's end.
Imagine the unimaginable.
Imagine Incarceron. "


Sounds great, eh? Well, I rate this book 2/5. Some of you are probably staring at my rating in amazement. I didn't even finish the book. The truth is, this book just didn't do it for me. I wasn't impressed. I'm going to share parts of a review I found online that I totally agree with:


"This book, like many fantasy novels I've ignored for the past few years, follows the Hero's Journey like a bible. Of course we have a mystery revolving around the hero's past. Of course the hero has to be of royal blood because having an actual peasant save the day is unheard of. Of course we must have two-dimensional characters, a romance that goes nowhere, and a villain that resembles a weak caricature of the Lady of the Green Kirtle in the Silver Chair."


So true. Many parts of this book reminded me of something from the Matrix and the pacing was wayyyy off. The characters were either somewhat intriguing or plain idiots with no lives.The love that's promised in this book? There's no love... you think three people could make an excellent love triangle, but then Fisher decides to put two people together that have absolutely no chemistry =.= I was sighing the whole time...seriously. This book is not worth your time and the book is like 200 pages too thick. The POVs are written unequally with so much plot in one character's narrative and nothing in the other. 


The only thing I'll compliment Fisher for is the language she used in the book. It was a lot more mature and descriptive than say other dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games or the Uglies series.


Truthfully,  was looking forward to enjoying this book. And the synopsis was so promising...
"I wanted to love it...but it failed me."
Good effort Fisher, but the major plot lines just weren't balanced out enough and the minor ones were dead ends, given more attention than needed. I won't be reading the sequel unfortunately.