Review by kelseydwf -- Seven at Two Past Five by Tara Basi
Posted: 20 Feb 2020, 17:30
[Following is a volunteer review of "Seven at Two Past Five" by Tara Basi.]
“I do not want to be too hopeful, but the alternative is not to hope at all, and so I will try.”
Such are the thoughts of the old button maker Abi, also known as Seven. She has a stringent but comforting daily routine: wake up in bunk-bed-coffin number Seven after a night of gut-wrenching nightmares called the Terrors, leave at exactly Two past Five for the Odd door, then spend all day crafting buttons in her cramped but beloved workhouse until she goes to sleep at precisely Nine past Nine. She lives a solitary life and has never encountered another person, but she prefers it this way. Then one morning, Abi wakes up refreshed and realizes the Terrors had not haunted her the previous night. She has no idea the repercussions that this relief will cost her.
Seven at Two Past Five by Tara Basi is unlike any book I’ve ever read. It follows the story of Abi throughout the massive struggles that span mostly over one day, after she is free from the Terrors. She enters her workhouse to find a black envelope where her blue envelope with the day’s button orders should be. The card in the envelope condemns Abi to her first Judgment: Disturbance Potential. Believing she did nothing wrong and determined to find justice, she tries to appeal. This sets off a chain of events that catapults Abi into a world of newness and adventure, all in a quest for things to go back to normal.
Along the way, Abi meets a unique cast of characters. My favorite was Zero, Abi’s Appeals Process Administrator. He is childlike and confusing to Abi, but also immensely comforting. Other characters include Grunge, Priest, Liberté, and the Marys. Each character is unique, well-developed, and easy to identify. The storyline is complex and carries a pleasing mix of satire, absurdity, and allegory. Everything that happens is significant.
Basi’s writing and narration are eloquent and formal, as is the way Abi speaks. Other characters, however, speak much more casually - more like you or I would speak in daily conversation. Zero, for example, uses slang and a dialect similar to a teenager’s. The speech of the other characters is frustrating to Abi; since she has never encountered another person before, she has trouble understanding what other characters are trying to say. This - and the bizarre nature of the whole book - made me laugh out loud at several points. I found this book extremely enjoyable and immersive.
It is with great pleasure that I rate Seven at Two Past Five 4 out of 4 stars. The story was engaging, the characters round and interesting, and the ending superb. There was nothing I disliked about this book, and I only noticed a handful of grammatical errors that were not distracting. There is some profanity, but when used, it fits the personality of the character speaking. I would recommend this book to readers who love absurd, bizarre, Kafkaesque novels that transport them to a different, but parallel, reality. I will definitely be reading Seven at Two Past Five again.
******
Seven at Two Past Five
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
“I do not want to be too hopeful, but the alternative is not to hope at all, and so I will try.”
Such are the thoughts of the old button maker Abi, also known as Seven. She has a stringent but comforting daily routine: wake up in bunk-bed-coffin number Seven after a night of gut-wrenching nightmares called the Terrors, leave at exactly Two past Five for the Odd door, then spend all day crafting buttons in her cramped but beloved workhouse until she goes to sleep at precisely Nine past Nine. She lives a solitary life and has never encountered another person, but she prefers it this way. Then one morning, Abi wakes up refreshed and realizes the Terrors had not haunted her the previous night. She has no idea the repercussions that this relief will cost her.
Seven at Two Past Five by Tara Basi is unlike any book I’ve ever read. It follows the story of Abi throughout the massive struggles that span mostly over one day, after she is free from the Terrors. She enters her workhouse to find a black envelope where her blue envelope with the day’s button orders should be. The card in the envelope condemns Abi to her first Judgment: Disturbance Potential. Believing she did nothing wrong and determined to find justice, she tries to appeal. This sets off a chain of events that catapults Abi into a world of newness and adventure, all in a quest for things to go back to normal.
Along the way, Abi meets a unique cast of characters. My favorite was Zero, Abi’s Appeals Process Administrator. He is childlike and confusing to Abi, but also immensely comforting. Other characters include Grunge, Priest, Liberté, and the Marys. Each character is unique, well-developed, and easy to identify. The storyline is complex and carries a pleasing mix of satire, absurdity, and allegory. Everything that happens is significant.
Basi’s writing and narration are eloquent and formal, as is the way Abi speaks. Other characters, however, speak much more casually - more like you or I would speak in daily conversation. Zero, for example, uses slang and a dialect similar to a teenager’s. The speech of the other characters is frustrating to Abi; since she has never encountered another person before, she has trouble understanding what other characters are trying to say. This - and the bizarre nature of the whole book - made me laugh out loud at several points. I found this book extremely enjoyable and immersive.
It is with great pleasure that I rate Seven at Two Past Five 4 out of 4 stars. The story was engaging, the characters round and interesting, and the ending superb. There was nothing I disliked about this book, and I only noticed a handful of grammatical errors that were not distracting. There is some profanity, but when used, it fits the personality of the character speaking. I would recommend this book to readers who love absurd, bizarre, Kafkaesque novels that transport them to a different, but parallel, reality. I will definitely be reading Seven at Two Past Five again.
******
Seven at Two Past Five
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon