with the lowers having the least desirable jobs and treated more like livestock then anything
344353
Inside Out is a dystopian novel set inside a large metal cube.  Society is divided into the uppers and the lowers, with the lowers having the least desirable jobs and treated more like livestock then anything.  The Uppers are the people that live in the upper levels of the cube.  Uppers and lowers are kept separated and neither really knows much of anything about the other; unless you're a member of the family that runs population control.

Our main protagonist Trella does not really think there is anything on the outside and gets drug into a dangerous situation to prove that a prophet called Broken Man is lying.  As she continues to search for the truth things get more heated and more lies come to light.  In the end everything they know gets turned on its head.

Right from the start I got a Nineteen Eighty-Four feel.  We have the Pop Cops and the mysteries Controllers that are an allegory for invasive government.  The Pop Cops control with an iron fist and recycle any person they deem a problem; they define problem loosely.

Maria Snyder has always been a fairy good world builder and that is evident in this story.  You really know what the Inside looks like without the descriptions bogging the story down.  The character development is on par with what youd except from a Snyder novel and I have no complaints there.

I did have a couple of problems with this book and Inside Out certainly is not one of my fav Snyder books.  I thought it was a little on the slower side; It went along at a steady clip but I wouldnt call it fast paced.  One of the problems I had with Inside Out was I had a hard time believing the Pop Cops let Broken Man live after they had paralyzed him.  He was exiled to the lower levels in a wheel chair but with the extreme population control that is enforced it would have made more sense for them to recycle them; our plot needed him to get the story going though.

I also had a problem towards the end where Trella, who has crawled all over this space and knows about nooks and crannies people never even thought existed, finds a massive expansion space for the population to expand into that shes never discovered before.  I just didn't find this believable.

All in all if you liked Nineteen Eighty-Four I think there is a good chance youll enjoy this novel.  It was written for teens originally; the language is not challenging, there is no sexual content and what violence there is was not graphic.  Many adults will enjoy this story; even though our protagonist was roughly 17 the content matter is not immature.
4827787
This seemed like a treatise on how a boss shouldn't feel bad about exploiting an employee.  You know: the animals on Animal Farm love life!  I have to admit I couldn't read the whole thing, though.  There's only so much snakeoil I can drink.
3871355
Although they are cheaper than walmart they are less quality as well.
33219
Again, I'm one of the people that got a bad box of hay.  Rosemary and Olive Oyl beg for hay every morning when they hear me walking upstairs.  I go into their cage and there's a ton of hay.  So why the heck are they wheeking at me?  Looking at the hay and it is mostly hard spindly stalks.  They won't touch these so there's a huge pile in the bottom of the cage.  I get the box and Olive Oyl is popcorning.  Go to fill their tube from the box and actually get scratched from hard stalks.  Not happy about this at all.  I have to literally dig and pick and chose what I'm trying to feed them.  I ordered this because it said best quality.  Who picked this best quality?  I guess it's a 50/50 chance on whether you get a good box or not.  For my first order I'm not impressed when my piggies won't eat most of it. :(
1701373
In the worst neighborhoods in America, you always find the following businesses; pawn shop, check casher, payday loan, tax-return advance lender, bail bondsman, liquer store, and funeral parlor. In the better neighborhoods, these businesses are a low-rent joke. If you look at a William Hogarth painting, you see the same thing; in the worst neighborhood, the best-kept businesses are pawn shops and funeral parlors, while in the better neighborhoods, the pawn shop and funeral parlor are run-down.

Poverty is a big business in the USA, and I don't mean charity. Payday loans are legal, but they take advantage of people who either have no choice or don't understand money. But the victims here are not without fault; one interview subject had a low-paying job and overspent, and one couple had children when they were not ready for the responsibility. I personally know people who have one child after another and can't afford to feed the children. I know others who took out huge loans to buy huge homes, even though their monthly income was less than the mortgage payment.

The interesting thing about the book is that the "villains" are, in some ways, better people than the ones they rip off. Take for instance an Ethiopian immigrant workaholic who founded a tax-return advance loan service. He set up the whole business on his own, hired the CPA's, found a bank to underwrite the company, and manages it successfully. Sure, he's taking advantage of the poor, but is the fault on him? After all, he's the one who's working like a horse and putting off having children.

Bottom line: it's the responsibility of the individual to live within their means. And delaying parenthood for a while doesn't hurt either.
339846
This cage is way WAY below the minimum size for hamsters. And they are burrowers not climbers. Tubes and levels do nothing for a hamster without floor room. These styles of cages are very outdated and not at all what we now know a hamster needs
2437016
This thing does it's job, unfortunately it also seems to have been designed backwards, and has a tendency to squish feces between the tines of the rake... which is both gross, and purposed defeating.
1006057
Well done but sad statement of the human condition. Stray dogs may have a better chance.
1007893
I admire the author for going through the rigor of working minimum wage jobs and supporting herself on them.  However, there are bones to pick.  First, the book is very much about her relatively short experiences, without too much about the bigger picture or even about her co-workers, who live the life she's trying out.  Second, she doesn't recommend solutions, maybe because she doesn't feel herself capable of giving any.  What should we do about the growing poverty in this country?  Housing subsidies rather than agricultural subsidies?  Small loans to lower-income individuals (allowing them to afford a security deposit on fairly-priced housing, rather than daily or weekly rate motels, and to buy decent work clothes and other necessities)?  More federal or state laws?  Better enforcement of those laws?

She also has a misplaced hatred and angst about the existence of servants.  She repeatedly snipes at people who hire servants.  I've done housekeeping, and my mother used to hire someone to help her from time to time when her health was poor.  It's wrong to treat people poorly.  Poor working conditions and not paying overtime are wrong.  Cleaning a house for money is fine.  The author doesn't want people to be poor or to suffer, but she thinks there's something intrinsically wrong with someone paying another person to clean a house.  Most people are okay and it pays something.  Really, what's the difference between working in a factory and working in someone's house?  I haven't worked in a factory, but I'm guessing the house is safer.  What about working as a janitor in an office building or a public building?  You get called a janitor or a tech instead of a maid, but the work's even harder.

I agree that poverty is a real concern, that a low-income woman living alone is in a very precarious situation, and this book put a lifestyle behind those issues: finding jobs, finding housing, figuring out how to eat without much time or money and no kitchen or grocery stores.  But I feel this book needed a part II: some examination and critique of changes we could make that would help our situation.
1948622
I grew up on a farm so it was interesting to me that someone would be attracted to that life - which is a good one, don't get me wrong - but it's a lot of work with little monetary reward.
4853335
I like these because they really do the job, but my hogs don't appreciate them much.
4090116
The decline of Western civilization has meant bank to scumbags like this immoral creep called "snoop". Singing about murder, "b*tches" & "hoes", selling drugs, etc, etc...yeah maybe all you wannabe gangstas think you got no future so you're gonna be nasty 'til death...the unfortunate thing is that you will only have no future if you live this lifestyle
1379623
If you're looking for a book to reinforce your disgust of the human race, this is the one. Less about race than about class, the characters are at best pathetic and at worst cruel narcissists.
1711444
The horses are cheap and ugly but the truck and trailer are great!
1914024
Low quality. Furr is really junky and falls everywhere. it sheds more than having another dog in the house. Smells like the petroleum refinery plants near Houston. Blegghhh!
913261
Buck has a good life.  He's friendly with his master.  He escorts the kids when they take walks.  He hunts with the men on the grounds.  But one day, Buck's life changes forever.  One of the gardener's hired hands needs money and decides to kidnap and sell Buck.  Dogs are in high demand because of the Alaskan gold rush and he'll get a good price for a dog like Buck.

This book is told from the perspective of Buck.  It's such a sad book.  Even when Buck was happy, it was a sad book.  The amount of work expected of these dogs was horrible and their treatment by humans not much better.  It was a good story and quite eye opening, but the animal abuse was hard to take sometimes.  I'm glad I waited and read it as an adult, because I don't think I would have appreciated it as much if I was still a child.
3886270
A very disturbing story of a wonderful native, humans are extremely selfish and we need to live with our fellow creatures.  RIP #6.  Ranchers in the US are disgusting!