Catherine Book, review: The Book of Ivy, Amy Engel Introduction: The Book of Ivy is a novel written by the American sy author, Amy Engel. The novel belongs to dystopia’s { / genre and is Amy Engel’s first book because she only starts writing when she decided to stay at home to take care about her children. The second tome of this dystopia just went out at the beginning of November. This author had only been published two times but in TT my opinion she has a real future in writing. , Setting: The story takes place in the United States reduced to a “ heap of ruins, five years after a nuclear war had destroyed the country. The survivors had chosen their PP : : : * president between the two family fighting for power. Since this day, every heir has to marry a daughter of the ‘opponent clan in order to show the entire population the peace reigning in the society. However this is far from the reality. In fact, Ivy the loser leader's granddaughter, is about to marry Bishop with who she has to form a representative couple. Nevertheless, since she was born she has a mission which is to kill Bishop in order to trigger a revolution. From her sixteen, would she have the courage to act as her family is expecting her to? sa In my opinion the setting is interesting because it seems like a total different world but at the same time a world which is close to us. In fact it is not impossible that in some years with the world’s situation a nuclear war will have destroyed our planet. The setting is also swearing a story full of rebounds. Characters: The main character is ivy Westfall, as said before she is the loser’s leader's granddaughter. During the story we can see the mental evolution of this character who is only 16 at the beginning of the book. Firstly, she seems a bit lost, | mean she knows what she has to do but she seems fragile, too young to be married to someone and scared about the whole situation. Then living with Bishop would help her evolve by seeing life by herself and not only through the eyes of her family. At the end of the story she is much more courageous and she imposes her opinion and makes choices by herself. Even if she is not my favorite character | consider her as a good narrator. In fact giving her this “task” is really appropriate because she is almost my age so | can understand her point of view and in some part identify myself to her. Even if the story is told from Ivy's point of view, Bishop is also a really important character. Indeed the major part of the plot is centered on him and after the wedding it is with him thatIvy spends her life. Therefore he is part of the action. All along the story, we would learn to know Bishop better through Ivy's point of view. | think that this is also really pertinent because at the beginning the reader only know Bishop, as Ivy, through what the Westfalls say. However this vision changes as fast as we begin discovering him for real with Ivy. | guess that this mystery around him is in part responsible of the fact that Bishop is my favorite character in the book. That is why | am not going to tell you more about him and let you discover by yourself. Another important character is Ivy's sister, Callie, who was first meant to marry Bishop and killed him. Callie is more courageous and more invested in the mission always making pressure ‘on Ivy in order to force her to act as soon as possible without cogitating. She is someone that {do not like that much because she almost avoid Ivy to make her own decision and to grow up. It seems like Callie is much more recruited by her family and always needs to have the control on her sister because she wants Ivy to accomplish the mission. Bishop's parents also played a role in the story. In fact there is Bishop’s mother who hate Ivy at the highest point and Bishop's father, also called President Lattimer, who unlike what we can think do his best to integrate Ivy to his family. As he is the president, the wedding of his son is a kind of peace sign for the nation which seems completely normal to him. He really does not imagine what Ivy is supposed to do. Sometimes we also see Ivy's father particularly at the beginning and the end of the book. He also wants Ivy to carry out her mission but I do not hate him like | hate Callie because he is more caring about Ivy's situation and feelings. nn, with this story Amy Engel is trying to pass the readers several messages. The first one with the setting which could possibly become our future if the world situation gets worse in the next years. | think that she wants to pass through the book a sort of peace message. However peace is not the most visible message. In fact, the author wants us to cogitate about and the courage of acting by ourselves after analyzing the whole situation and taking into account how we really feel about it. | guess Amy Engel wants us to realize that everyone is different and that we need to decide by ourselves in order to avoid regrets. There isa sort of growing up message because to become an adult you need to be capable to make your own choices. | think there is also a reflection about the value of life. Indeed, the story is based on Ivy's mission which is to kill Bishop. Obviously after being recruited for years and without knowing him, itfirst sounds easy for her to assassinate him. However learning to know him makes her realize that he is a human being as her which makes the accomplishment of her mission much more difficult to consider. In my opinion this story is about courage and doing the right thing but also caring and happiness, First of all, courage because the question of the entire story is: “Would Ivy be courageous ‘enough to accomplish her mission?”. Then, we can say that story is also about doing the right thing because to consi Bishop, Ivy has to know first if this action is the right thing to do.Secondly, caring is also a theme evoked by the book. In fact, the mission mentioned before the key to a revolution which would help Ivy's family to live in better conditions. That is why there is the question of caring about family but most generally about people. This last question drive us to the last theme happiness. Indeed this potential revolution also integrate a research for happiness. Moreover we can also ask ourselves: “If by a revolution the society evolves, could Ivy find happiness after killing someone?”. | learned from this story that it is important to think before acting because you always need to know if what you are about to do seems to be the right thing to you. This book also showed me that it is important to go further than prejudices because most of the time what you thought is really far from reality and can make you lose opportunities. Plot: -The arranged wedding in front of everyone. The party in order to celebrate the emblematic couple's wedding. The dinner during which Ivy and Bishop get to know each other. -The party at the president’s house where Ivy has the mission to find codes in order to help her father and the loser’s side to open the weapons’ room. Assessment of the book: | really like this book because | enjoyed how from the beginning till the end the author manages to make you hesitate on the issue of her novel. | think that using Ivy's point of view all along the book is really great because you are closer to the dilemma and the situations that make her change her mind several times. However, what | prefer is the fact the author succeeded in making me like reading dystopia. In fact, in her book she uses the good writing process (like description, action...) at the good time which creates in my opinion the perfect balance to make the story enjoyable. | would say that the only thing | did not like so much is Callie’s character. Indeed | dislike the fact that she thinks she knows all about life and that she has the right to make pressure on Ivy. I mean for me a big sister must be protective and needs to care more about her sister’s opinion and feelings than about a society's fate. For me family values are a bit broken by this. character. | think the story is believable because every details make sense, there is not any of them which seems not at his place. | mean that each scene has its place in the novel. As said before the author did not just write something to make her novel look bigger, she used the good things at the good time. When you begin reading this book you know that there is a dilemma which you are really close to all along the story through the description of the events lived by Ivy. However till the end you do not know how the whole mission is going to end. Then when | discovered the end | had just no words to describe the situation, it was just not any way | had expected it during my reading. [really recommend this book to everyone who think as | did that dystopias is a genre in which characters just have missions to accomplish in order to save humanity. In fact this one is mixing, the dystopia’s cliché with a complicated love story and a reflection about life and family.