Proxy by Alex London Review

This was such a surprising read for me! This is one of the last books on my shelf that are left over from middle school or high school and, now that I've read it, I wish I would've read it sooner! I ended up enjoying this book and it reminded me a lot of why I used to enjoy science fiction, and specifically dystopian novels, so much.

Proxy's main character is Syd, who is, as the title would imply, a proxy. This means that Syd takes the punishment for anything Knox, his patron, does wrong. When Knox crashes his car and kills the person riding with him, it is Syd that faces the penalty for murder. The society this book takes place in is based entirely on a credit and debt system and I felt that it was an interesting take on traditional dystopian settings.

What I enjoyed about this book:

- The worldbuilding! The description of the different types of technology, as well as the structure for the world is just really interesting to me! It also helps that London's writing regarding everything is a joy to read and his descriptions are very vivid.

- The plot and premise! This ties in a bit with the worldbuilding, but the plot of this novel is really compelling from the moment it's introduced to the very end. It takes a ton of interesting turns and, while it does follow some of what I expect from YA dystopian novels, it was still a lot of fun to read through.

- The characters! At the start of the book, I didn't find myself connecting with the characters very well and was a little worried they'd remain pretty one-dimensional. However, as I continued to read I really grew to appreciate the entire cast! They have clear motivations and I really enjoyed each of their character arcs, especially by the end of the book.

Aspects of this book that weren't for me:

- There were some odd slips in perspective that were sometimes a little confusing. It might just be me nitpicking, but sometimes it felt like it was slipping between third person omniscient and third person limited. It doesn't happen constantly, but often enough that I noticed it in a few different sections.

- The writing overall I just felt pretty indifferent about. It definitely wasn't bad and, other than what's mentioned above, it was never distracting, but for some reason I just couldn't really connect well with it.

This book really surprised me in all of the right ways and, overall, I ended up really enjoying it! I gave Proxy 4 stars because I really enjoyed almost every aspect of the book, but the writing occasionally just took me a little too out of the story to justify giving it 5 stars. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking to read more YA dystopian books! It relies on the tropes of its genre, while also introducing enough new elements to feel original and engaging.

TW: Murder, death, and homophobia (this isn't a major theme and doesn't come up often, but I thought it was best to mention it here just in case).