This is a novel like no other I have ever read before. The concept is genius and the storytelling style is brilliant.
In another reality, very similar to ours, a person's wealth has a direct effect on their size. The richest of the rich are as tall as skyscrapers while the poor are as small as your average rat. Needless to say when you're that small moving up in the world is going to be difficult. You're in constant danger - someone could stand on you, a cat could attack you, you could be plucked up off the street and used as someone's plaything in their dollhouse or model railway!! Accessing healthcare is nearly impossible as is gaining an education - nothing is built to accommodate you! However brother and sister, Warner and Prayer, are determined to get bigger. They embark on an adventure to marry Prayer off to a middle rich law student so that they can spread his wealth and scale them both, and their mother, up.
The story is told using a first person narrative - Warner. In fact, it is told as if Warner is writing the story, spelling mistakes and all! Some have criticised this idea but I for one thought it was fantastic. It made it so much more realistic too me. If everything had been spelled perfectly and all sentences grammatically correct then I wouldn’t have felt as if Warner himself was telling the story – he his littlepoor after all, so he hasn’t had any formal education.
I also loved the humour in the story. I particularly enjoyed that people called each other Dave, as if there were so many Daves in the world that there was good chance you would be right! I live in an area where there seems to be a lot of Davids, so it would work quite well here!!
The only thing I didn’t like about the story was the ending. Unfortunately, I can’t really say much without spoiling things but I just didn’t understand Warner’s motives and actions. Not sure what I would have preferred – I just feel the story fell flat at the very end.
In another reality, very similar to ours, a person's wealth has a direct effect on their size. The richest of the rich are as tall as skyscrapers while the poor are as small as your average rat. Needless to say when you're that small moving up in the world is going to be difficult. You're in constant danger - someone could stand on you, a cat could attack you, you could be plucked up off the street and used as someone's plaything in their dollhouse or model railway!! Accessing healthcare is nearly impossible as is gaining an education - nothing is built to accommodate you! However brother and sister, Warner and Prayer, are determined to get bigger. They embark on an adventure to marry Prayer off to a middle rich law student so that they can spread his wealth and scale them both, and their mother, up.
The story is told using a first person narrative - Warner. In fact, it is told as if Warner is writing the story, spelling mistakes and all! Some have criticised this idea but I for one thought it was fantastic. It made it so much more realistic too me. If everything had been spelled perfectly and all sentences grammatically correct then I wouldn’t have felt as if Warner himself was telling the story – he his littlepoor after all, so he hasn’t had any formal education.
I also loved the humour in the story. I particularly enjoyed that people called each other Dave, as if there were so many Daves in the world that there was good chance you would be right! I live in an area where there seems to be a lot of Davids, so it would work quite well here!!
The only thing I didn’t like about the story was the ending. Unfortunately, I can’t really say much without spoiling things but I just didn’t understand Warner’s motives and actions. Not sure what I would have preferred – I just feel the story fell flat at the very end.