Review: Blackcoat Rebellion #1 - Pawn

Title: PawnAuthor: Aimee Carter
Year of Publication: 2013
Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion#: 1
Goodreads Rating (Avg.): 3.80
Goodreads Rating (Mine): 2

SO MANY SPOILERS

Plot Description: Kitty Doe lives in a world where everyone takes a test at the age of 17 which evaluates their worth in society. She receives a 3, rather than the average 4 on her test. Just when she thinks she's doomed to a life of menial work, she's whisked off to be a doppelganger for the Prime Minister's dead niece, Lila Hart. As Lila Hart, Kitty is supposed to help stop a rebellion against the current regime - a rebellion Lila had secretly been fostering.

Disclaimer: I didn't want to read this book, but it was lying around at home and I was starved for options. Since I was going into this book with no expectations whatsoever, I actually ended up pleasantly surprised at times.

It was only after I started reading YA almost exclusively that I came across the phrase "TSTL" (too stupid to live). And that's precisely what first comes to mind when we see Kitty Doe stealing an orange and hoping she'll be shot on sight for theft. The idea gets even more ridiculous when you realize that her boyfriend, Benjy is with her, and she's putting both of them in danger. The writing is vague and disconnected even here, at the beginning, and this really doesn't bode well for the rest of the book.

After escaping from the Shields and relinquishing their orange, Kitty and Benjy discuss her options. With that particular brand of clear thinking apparently omnipresent in sixteen year olds, Benjy proposes to Kitty, because this means they won't be separated. Thankfully, she has the sense to turn him down, because she's afraid being married to a 3 will hurt his ranking chances when he takes the test.

Kitty decides to go speak to Tabs, a local prostitute who has been trying to recruit her. Benjy is dead set against this. And while Benjy seems to be speaking purely from prejudice, I agree with him because I don't think Kitty really understands what it means to be a prostitute. The way she talks about it gives me the impression that she thinks the worst thing about prostitution is having to sleep with strange men. She doesn't sound like she understands the physical danger involved, or the lack of choice that will end up haunting her with every step she takes. She certainly didn't know Tabs was recruiting her because Tabs would get a cut of her pay.

"You're my girlfriend," he said roughly. "I don't want those pigs touching you."

Okay, Benjy, I know you're sixteen, but you can't build your life around a girl. Like, seriously. Also, possessive much?

Before she leaves, Benjy asks her to sleep with him. I don't really know what to make of that, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. Kitty tells him that it's better for her prospects if she's a virgin, and then he tells her he should be her first.

Why? I know it's hard for your sixteen year old love-crazed brain to comprehend this, Benjy, but plenty of people who are in love are never each other's firsts. And you don't really get to decide who should be someone else's first. You can want Kitty to be your first, sure. Similarly, she's the only one who gets to decide who she wants to be her first.

Kitty tells him he's always going to be her first because sleeping with anyone else won't count, and she breaks up with him for a month - until he knows what his ranking is going to be.

Prostitution is illegal in Kitty's country, but since it's the 'oldest profession' in the world, and since many of the highest ranking men in the country frequent these clubs, a blind eye is turned. Since she's young and still a virgin, her virginity is auctioned off - starting with a thousand gold pieces and ending at thirty thousand. That's more than she would have made as a sewage worker in ten years, and she's amazed at the idea that anyone would spend that much for one night with her. Kitty's naivete is once again starkly obvious, since she doesn't seem to have understood that what was being bid for wasn't her - not her as a person, but just the fact of her virginity. She's very much still a child here, because the idea that prostitution can sometimes dehumanize the people working in that field isn't something she's completely recognizing.

This is the point at which I set the book down and momentarily wish that this was what this book was really about - the story of a young girl who begins to gradually understand the world through her life as a sex worker - her journey from innocence and naivete to maturity, if you will. It would definitely have made for a better plot than that of the real Pawn. But I guess that's not what real YA literature is looking for.

I wished this because even though prostitution is not the subject matter of Carter's book, she introduced it all the same, and then trivialized it. In another review I read, the reviewer described the prostitution sub-plot as a gun that wasn't loaded, and I think this gun shouldn't have been brought into the picture and then portrayed as inconsequential. Kitty leaves the club not realizing the exact nature of the bullet she just dodged, and I think a lot of younger readers would have ended up doing the same. Prostitution and virginity auctions are not, after all, some myth conceived of in Carter's precious fictional dystopia. They exist in the real world, and have a lot of real world dangers and connotations attached to them. Treating the subject as a convenient plot device and reducing it to prejudicial stereotypes is not okay at all.

Okay, that was intense. And it's only now that the real plot kicks off.

In short, Kitty is made to stand in for the PM's dead niece, as a cover up for her death. Lila is a bit of a Princess Diana figure - she'd been going around saying things that were technically treasonous, and had acquired a vast following among the common people through her charisma and charm. A lot of time is devoted to describing Kitty's eleven days of training to replace Lila, and in this time, the rest of the family is introduced. There's Celia, Lila's mother. Augusta, Daxton's mother and the matriarch of the Hart family. There's Knox Creed, Lila's fiance. And Greyson, Daxton's younger son and sole surviving heir.

This is where Pawn becomes a confused piece of writing, and having read the sequel - Captive - I can tell you it doesn't get better. Pawn has a lot of things going against it. For one thing, it's a chip off the old Hunger Games block, and derivative as such. For another, it suffers from less than sympathetic protagonists. With the exception of Knox and Greyson, even the auteurs of the rebellion are motivated by selfishness. Celia is out for power and revenge. Kitty's heroism is impulsive and inconsistent. She's as confused about her motivations as can be - oscillating wildly between sympathizing with the downtrodden and helping the autocrats in order to save Benjy's life.

The confused storylines don't help Pawn's case. Plot twist is piled on top of plot twist, and one ends up disliking all the characters on principle. Carter seems to care more about shocking the reader and keeping them guessing than on good writing. As a result, by the time it is revealed that the real Lila Hart is still alive, one gives up.

Pawn was greatly evocative of a Meg Cabot book on similar lines - the Airhead trilogy, where a smart girl's brain is transplanted into a supermodels body. (Spoiler: Airhead also revealed that the original owner of the body was still alive.) These books seem eager to appeal to the everygirl reader while reaffirming the idea that a heroine needs to be conventionally beautiful. It's a sad attempt at having one's cake and eating it too, and undermines the lesson that physical beauty isn't the be-all and the end-all.

The book ends with an action filled showdown between Kitty and the matriarch - Augusta Hart. Where she was previously unable to assassinate Daxton, Kitty now shows herself capable of killing when Benjy's life is at stake. With Augusta out of the way and Daxton still in a coma, it seems like the perfect moment for the rebellion to take control. This opportunity is, however, wasted in favour of a set up to a sequel that honestly seems unnecessary.

Next: The Blackcoat Rebellion #2 - Captive