Seems they seized control from a more democratic initial leadership, and make sure nobody is in the know except for them. But as the story progresses, and she starts to let her guard down, your heart goes out to her as you realize it’s the divide and conquer techniques of the rulers that have molded and manipulated her (and everyone else).Īnd boy are the rulers messed up.

She’s a stubborn, skeptical loner with a prickly, sarcastic personality. Trella does A LOT of crawling through the pipes from one sector to the next, so it made things much simpler once I drew a diagram (there’s a detailed description in the first 10 pages that starts you out) to help me imagine the distances and locations of everything. This cube setting was difficult for me to imagine initially. It gets you spinning theories as to how they got there, why they’re there, and who controls “gateway” (the way out all scrubs are hoping really does exist). This dystopia has a very sci-fi feel, especially when you realize that everyone Uppers and scrubs alike are essentially trapped within a very large, self-sustaining cube. I don’t often get fangirly in my reviews, but OMG does this book make me giddy! I’ve been thinking about it non-stop since I finished it last night, and I am excited to share what made me enjoy it so (spoiler-free of course).

And her superior knowledge of getting around comes in handy when she inadvertently starts a rebellion against the ruling Upper family of Inside and their brutal Pop Cops. Because of her penchant for roaming the miles of pipes around Inside to steal moments of peace for herself, Trella is known as Queen of the Pipes.

Trella is a scrub, just one of the thousands packed in like sardines in the lower levels who keep Inside clean.

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder