A thrilling novel, written by the acclaimed author of “Elsewhere,” Gabrielle Zevin gripped the readers from cover to cover with the novel “All These Things I’ve Done.” “Zevin excels at inviting readers into Anya’s mafia paranoia. . . . Anya is a likable character. . . . The love story’s to die for, and the tangled web of relationships will keep readers intrigued to the last page.” -Kirkus Reviews. This book is a must read for young adults.
Taking place in the year 2083, in New York City, chocolate and coffee have become illegal, water is rationed, and the city is riddled with crime, poverty, and death. Anya Balachine, an orphan and mother figure for her family, must raise above all the obstacles that the city poses in order to help her family. She is the daughter of the murdered mafia leader. Anya descends from a long line of chocolate company owners; she does her best to exempt herself from the organized crime that her family is still intertwined in. When Anya is later accused of poisoning a classmate with a Balachine chocolate bar, and sent to a detention center, she has to learn to embrace her family’s past and inherit the destiny her father left behind.
The author of “All These Things I’ve Done”, Gabrielle Zevin, graduated from Harvard University. Zevin’s novel “Elsewhere”, her most praised novel, is a story that is centralized around grief, death, and lost has a long lasting effect on the reader. These themes are also constant throughout the book, “All These Things I’ve Done”.
This novel gave the reader amazing insight on what the world may be like in seventy years. It is interesting to see the way organized crime works, and how with the smallest move someone could be dead, or fatally injured. Anna Balanchine is a character that the reader quickly becomes attached too, and you find yourself routing for her, and her family. The character development and the way that Zevin illustrates each character in your mind makes you left wanting more.
The sequel to this novel will be eagerly awaited. “All These Things I’ve Done” is a great book for any young adults.
