Published February 8th 2011 by Penguin Group
Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, can’t remember his childhood and believes he came from Outside Incarceron. He’s going to escape, even though most inmates don’t believe that Outside even exists. And then Finn finds a crystal key and through it, a girl named Claudia.
Claudia claims to live Outside—her father is the Warden of Incarceron and she’s doomed to an arranged marriage. If she helps Finn escape, she will need his help in return. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost far more than they know.
Because Incarceron is alive.
I will say that I was a little confused at first. The story just jumps right into this crazy, elaborate, completely different world, and it took me a little while to get my bearings reading about it. But once I did, I was entranced by Incarceron. By the prison, by the book, by the writing- all of it!
I liked all the characters. I liked how nice and determined Finn was, and how Brave Attia was, and how feisty Claudia was. But even more than that, I was fascinated by the world. The world is what drew me into the book and kept me interested. The prison was crazy! It was so creepy and scary and horrible, and yet it was such a puzzle. Kind of like the arenas in The Hunger Games.
The “outside” was equally fascinating to me. Everything was created, nothing is real it seems. It was just so cool to read about this insanely intricate and unfathomable world that Catherine Fisher created. She did such an amazing job! It seemed like a beautiful work of art to me. I could not put it down. I made the mistake of bringing this book with me to work one day, and I was so absorbed in it that I did not even notice the customers standing right in front of me sometimes. (oops)
I cannot wait to read the sequel! I need to run to the library ASAP. (stupid book buying ban!)
5/5 Gavels.
Tiffany
Great review! I have this one but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. I’ll have to get to it soon 🙂
Candace
I SO agree! I LOVED this book! It gets some mixed reviews because I think some people have a hard time being thrust into such a crazy and intricate world. But I have to say that I think it was done perfectly, for me at least. The second one is just as good!
Chey
This sounds so interesting! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’ll be adding this to my wishlist! 🙂
Natalie (Mindful Musings)
I’ve yet to read this one, even though I’ve heard so many great things about it! Glad you enjoyed it!
Stopped by from the Saturday Situation.
Jolene and Family
Wow, the prison sounds fascinating. I’m glad you enjoyed this and I can’t wait to read it. Great review
Sophia Chang
This book was ruined for me by the audiobook narrator! She put on this bad British accent and it was so confusing to listen to this story as opposed to reading it that I got totally lost and just stopped. 🙁