Review: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Title: Incarceron

Author: Catherine Fisher

Release Date: January 26th, 2010 (first published May 3rd, 2007 in the UK, I think)

Publisher: Dial

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 442

Source: Library

Series: Book one of Incarceron series

Other Titles in the Series: Sapphique (book #2)

Challenge: Steampunk Challenge

Summary (goodreads.com): Incarceron is a prison unlike any other: Its inmates live not only in cells, but also in metal forests, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness. The prison has been sealed for centuries, and only one man, legend says, has ever escaped.

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.

My Review: At first this book was really slow. I didn’t like Finn’s point of view chapters at all, but I liked Claudia’s so I trudged on. Once their stories intertwined I liked it a lot better. It was fascinating to learn about Incarceron from a prisoner’s point of view as well as an outside. See people outside of Incarceron have been told that it’s a paradise but really it’s a prison that has a mind of its on. The prison Incarceron is like the Demon Child of Stephen King’s Rose Red and Disney’s Smart House, not exactly the place I would want to live but it’s a great topic to read about. There are plenty of plot twists and action so I think it’s a book most teenagers will enjoy (my best friend loves this book!). There’s also going to be a movie made soon which I think will draw in even more readers (even if its only because Taylor Lautner is playing Finn (which makes no sense to me but there you go)).