Review: Proxy by Alex London

Title: Proxy

Series: Proxy Book One

Author: Alex London

Publication Date: June 18, 2013

Knox was born into one of the City’s wealthiest families. A Patron, he has everything a boy could possibly want—the latest tech, the coolest clothes, and a Proxy to take all his punishments. When Knox breaks a vase, Syd is beaten. When Knox plays a practical joke, Syd is forced to haul rocks. And when Knox crashes a car, killing one of his friends, Syd is branded and sentenced to death.

Syd is a Proxy. His life is not his own.

Then again, neither is Knox’s. Knox and Syd have more in common than either would guess. So when Knox and Syd realize that the only way to beat the system is to save each other, they flee. Yet Knox’s father is no ordinary Patron, and Syd is no ordinary Proxy. The ensuing cross-country chase will uncover a secret society of rebels, test both boys’ resolve, and shine a blinding light onto a world of those who owe and those who pay. Some debts, it turns out, cannot be repaid.

  

***

My Thoughts

Proxy is a retelling of The Whipping Boy, never read it, so can't give you a good comparison with it, but what I can tell you is that this was quite the entertaining read all by itself.

When I read the blurb I was immediately intrigued with the idea of having a proxy. It was messed up and yet while you are reading it makes a kind of sick sense with how their society is made up. Their whole society is based on debts. They keep track of this through your blood. I'm guessing they injected some kind of nanotechnology that stays in your blood stream? I was a bit disappointed that London didn't explain this better. He just left it at that, now how the whole system came about and how it was integrated. This lack of depth is one of if it's flaws. While London does make a good job of explaining the society Knox and Syd are living in, and how it all works. It all stayed in the now, nothing about the past was explained so you can't really get a good grip on it, but I decided to let it go, because the book is good anyway.

As I have mentioned before I love my characters, and in this, London did not disappoint. At first Knox is your typical rebellious, rich kid teenager. Even knowing that he has a proxy and the one getting beat for it is Syd and not him, he never changes his ways. He had stopped seeing Syd as a person anymore and he took it more as a defiance to his dad. Then Knox has that accident and things start changing quickly. He is finally confronted with Syd and decides to help him out, but not out of the goodness of his heart. And this one quality of Knox, is what both made me like him and dislike him at times. I liked that he was honest with himself and with his intentions. He did what he had to do to keep going, and he wasn't ashamed of it, but at the same time I would get pissed at how shallow he would come across at times, but he showed some great character development as the book progressed.

Then there was Syd, he was like Knox in a way as well. He was the center of it all. Multiple people kept telling him what he had to do, and both Know and Maria kept trying to sway him to one or the other side, like his personal little demon and angel over his shoulder, but Syd is Syd, and he can think for himself. He never once gave up and just let other people make the decisions for him, and for that Syd gets my utmost respect :)

And lastly there was Maria, who I like to think of as the third wheel of the trio. She butt into the running away plan, acted like she was holier than thou, and was just ALWAYS there! It pissed me off! Yes she was strong and saved their butts a few times, but that doesn't mean I have to like the chick. She was annoying as hell. Her near fanatic beliefs and about Syd where creepy. I'm all for being optimistic during hard times and even a tad idealistic, but fanaticism? Hell no.I was hoping she would die during their journey, multiple times, unfortunately that didn't happen :(

So...

Would I Recommend it?

***

Books in the series:

1. Proxy (June 2013)
2. Guardian (2014)

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