July 27, 2018

Review: Pacifica by Kristen Simmons

Pacifica
Author: Kristen Simmons
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication Date: March 6, 2018
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover/Own

Marin is corsario royalty, a pirate like her father and his father before him. Sailing the ocean to chase adventure is in her blood. But these days no one cares that the island town her people call home is named after her grandfather. They have a new leader, one who promises an end to their hunger – and one who thinks that girls are meant for the kitchen or the brothel. Marin knows she's meant for more than that, and with the sudden influx of weapons on the island, and rumors of a pending deal with the enemy oil nation in her wake, she knows a big score to gain the council's favor is the only way to save her people, and herself.

Ross lives a life of privilege. As the president's son he wants for nothing, but he longs for a life of adventure. On a dare, he convinces his best friend Adam to sneak out to the Docks, the site of local race riots between the poor Shorlings and the upper class. But when Adam is arrested along with the other Shorlings, and not even the president is willing to find him, Ross finds himself taking matters into his own hands. He journeys back into the Docks, ready to make deals with anyone, even a beautiful pirate, if it means Adam's safe return.

When Marin and Ross meet in dangerous Shoreling territory he sees a way to get his friend back and she sees her ticket home. The ransom a president’s son would command could feed her people for years and restore her family’s legacy. But somewhere in the middle of the ocean, Marin must decide if her heart can handle handing over the only person who has ever seen her as more than a pirate.

Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was an incredibly interesting and potentially realistic book. In the world built in this book, the ice caps have melted. Ocean levels rised. There's tons of trash in the ocean. So much so that the island Marin was born on is literally a huge island of trash. So much trash has ended up in the ocean that there are literally islands of trash. Theres even "icebergs" which are just huge chunks of trash that if you get caught in, you could get sucked under and die. We even witness this almost happen at least twice with 2 different characters. On top of that, the oil is running dry, countries are on the brink of war, and the people are being separated and sent away much like the Japanese were in WWII. Like honestly, with the way things are in the world right now, this could be very realistic in the future. 

I really enjoyed both Marin and Ross's characters. Marin, despite being born and raised a pirate is actually pretty selfless. She's constantly trying to find ways to help the people she cares about. She even helps people she just met, like Ross. To be honest, I think the blurb is actually misleading. It makes it sound like Marin is with the pirates and just goes out and finds the presidents son to gain favor. And that's not even close to true. Marin's been on the mainland for 5 years. Living near the docks of Noram, the city Ross lives in (the rich section of course). They meet because Ross and his friend want to see the riots caused by the relocation plan and ended up in trouble and Marin saves them. Marin wants to help Ross find Adam after he's taken by the authorities in exchange for money to help the kids she's helped take care of. She's actually pretty afraid of going home and pretty fearful of the fact she has to take Ross there to find Adam. She only gives Ross up as a ransom as a ruse to get back on the island and not be potentially killed herself. Ross is a typical privileged rich kid. Doesn't realize how bad the poor people have it, doesn't think the government aka his dad would do this to the poor people. He also isn't very good at doing things for himself since he's always had people to do it for him. He does try though. Once he's out with Marin he actually tries to be helpful and learn stuff. So at least he's not the bratty type of rich kid you often read about. 

The majority of the story takes place in Noram. Ross's dad has put into action this idea of Relocation for all the poor people or "shorelings." He says they'll be going to this wonderful island called Pacifica where they'll get a fresh start, house, jobs, etc. In reality, all the stuff about Pacifica is a rouse that one of his officials has been in charge of spreading. Pacifica is actually Marin's home island, Careytown. The island made of trash. Ross's dad wants to send the shorelings there so he can drill for oil under the part of town they are in. He also won't admit the North American Alliance is also on the brink of war with South America or the SAF. He acts like nothing is wrong and he's doing nothing wrong. His Vice President though has different ideas and does know somethings wrong and needs to be done, but being Vice President, he can't really do anything. Unfortunately for Ross's dad, throughout the whole ordeal of Adam being taken, Marin and Ross going to find him and finding Careytown and learning what Pacifica actually is, Ross finds out all the stuff he's keeping secret from the citizens and confronts him when he finally gets home. He pretty much forces him to admit to everything in public. You can't keep that many secrets without them coming to light sooner or later. Especially when someone who was born on that trash island is living among you. 

Luckily at the end, we find out Ross's dad resigned and is being investigated for this whole ordeal. And the vice president, who was actually aware of the issues, takes over and actually starts working on fixing the oil crisis, and bringing the people exiled in Careytown back to Noram and into the community. He even works out some deals that avoids war with the SAF. 

I really enjoyed this book because not only does it show some realistic possibilities of global warming, but it genuinely showed a dystopian world. People being separated, a government lying to you while keeping those that know better out of it, hiding the truth about how bad things are for the country, etc. It was a genuine book. I love the way Kristen Simmons writes dystopian worlds, and the fact that this one not only was based off something real for her family but also something that's slowly happening in the world already made this such a great read!