{"id":4476,"date":"2012-05-31T12:35:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T10:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2022-06-09T20:48:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T18:48:21","slug":"all-these-things-ive-done-by-gabrielle-zevin-a-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/baby-to-teens\/teens-books\/all-these-things-ive-done-by-gabrielle-zevin-a-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin, a book review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genre: Young Adult<\/p>\n

Reading level:\u00a0Ages 12 and up<\/p>\n

Paperback: 384 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher: Macmillan Children\u2019s Books<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 978\u20140-33-53789-6<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.5 stars<\/p>\n

Fast forward to a semi-dystopian 2083,\u00a0where pleasure items such as chocolate and coffee are banned, paper is in short supply (thus, no more books are printed), water is\u00a0rationed, and New York City is a hot bed of crime and poverty. Simple things like telephone calls and emails carry a high price tag. Museums, libraries, and cultural centres have closed down, lakes have dried up, and people wear \u2018vintage\u2019 clothing because garment manufacture has stopped. You can\u2019t even get fruit! Yet,\u00a0life goes on and people manage\u2026in a way.<\/p>\n

Anya Balanchine is the sixteen-year-old\u00a0daughter of the city’s most notorious (and dead) crime boss. The Balanchine family manufactures chocolate, a business that now carries a criminal label. Anya\u2019s mother was killed in a botched assassination attempt on her father\u2019s life. The incident alsoinjured her older brother Leo, leaving him childlike in an adult body. It\u2019s up to Anya to keep the remaining family together, and still shoulder the tasks of going to school, taking care of her siblings and\u00a0her dying grandmother. Anya is out the family\u2019s immediate sphere of activities until a batch of Balanchine chocolate, given to her by a cousin, has fatal consequences. Anya\u2019s ex-boyfriend is almost fatally poisoned and the police naturally think she’s to blame. At the same time, her new boyfriend\u2019s father, the assistant DA, tells her to keep away from his son (Win) or else! Suddenly, Anya finds herself the focus of public attention and that\u2019s not good! Things go from bad to worse when gentle Leo, who had started working for the family as a gopher, takes it into his head to shoot his uncle, now the head of the Balanchine family business. Everything spirals out of control and Anya faces a heart-breaking decision in order to save her brother and her younger sister.<\/p>\n

Told from Anya\u2019s point of view, the story unfolds as Anya battles hardships, trying to salvage her life. Anya is feisty and brave, with a slightly hardened attitude to relationships and people. A nice touch is Anya\u2019s increasing memories of things her father said, and his words of advice. In this way, the father becomes like a living character. Anya will do anything to protect what remains of her family. She is also loyal to her buddy Scarlet, a wacky, arty girl, who is a good friend to Anya. The author has captured perfectly the emotional highs and lows of the main character and readers will really bond with Anya. The book has great pace and action until the high point of Anya\u2019s arrest. Then the story slackens and much of what takes place thereafter (exciting in itself) seems almost quickly jammed together to get to the end. This is the first book in the Birthright trilogy, which could account for a rushed conclusion.<\/p>\n

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