Well I've read a book so by Proxy (by Alex London) I'm writing about it

 

Today I’m writing about Proxy by Alex London which has, unsurprisingly, been sat on my shelf for a little while. Now, I do know that this book is one of two – the sequel being Guardian. I do own the sequel and will be reading it after this one. And because this is book one of two, this is going to be more of a recap with review elements, rather than a straight up review, because the story doesn’t actually end at the end of Proxy.

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So, the Blurb Wellington immediately says that Syd’s life is not his own, and as a proxy, he must pay for someone else’s crimes. Then when Knox, Syd’s patron, crashes a car and kills someone, Syd is sentenced to death. Then Syd and Knox want to beat the system, so end up on a cross country chase. Lovely. A nice simple concept that’s easy enough to understand, and lord, I’m not trying to think when I read, so I love something simple.

We’re introduced to Knox immediately, he’s speeding down a road with this girl, and we’re told there’s not a security system he couldn’t hack. We also learn that he’s essentially the spoiled rich kid in this story – and that he’s in, I believe it was, one of the most prestigious schools. Basically, his family is rich. Syd is the opposite, living and studying in this ratty area of Mountain City. Also, in this world, you basically got targeted ads based on the way that you live, and we learn that because of that, Syd tried to keep what he bought as boring as possible, or on the black market. Syd’s whole gig is trying to keep his head down, despite the fact the two-hundred odd kids in his school class found out he was gay, or a “Chapter 11”, thanks to some unauthorised texting with his best friend, Egan.

Anyway, then these “guardians” turn up for Syd, because Knox killed the gal in the car with him when he crashed. But also, Knox is watching Syd get picked up while he’s in the hospital. Then to jump ahead a little, because of what Knox did, Syd essentially gets locked up in this prison compound, and he commandeers a medical bot to escape from it, and he ends up going to this party where Knox happens to be – because of course he is – and basically kidnaps Knox to get him to get him a fake ID so he can escape the city and pretty much live his own life – or get his own life, really.

Also, during this kidnapping, Syd kisses Knox, just as a means of distraction to the people after Syd, but there was this focus on how Knox had never kissed anyone with stubble. The book had only mentioned women that Knox had ever had his eyes on, but because there was so much focus on this quick kiss, that gave me very much, “Oh, these two are going to develop romantic feelings for each other at some point, aren’t they?” tease.

About halfway through the book, some truths about the world and certain events in this book are revealed, and something about Syd’s blood being important, or a concern, was mentioned when Knox is helping him escape. When I first read that, that just made me think that maybe it was a rare blood type or something, and blood type shared with Knox, and that’s why they were proxy and patron. But there was mention of a virus too.

I was, however, wrong. Because there’s repeated mention of this “jubilee”, which, in the context of this book, is when pretty much everyone’s debts are forgiven, which would mean that all the proxies are freed. Now, spoiler alert regarding Syd’s skin/blood the jubilee was somehow implanted in him by his father, meaning that Syd is a revolution, and when I read this, this was the point where I was like, “Okay, giving me miss Katniss Everdeen I am the revolution” tease. It gave me very much that era of YA. And the virus was a literal virus that would pretty much take down the technology, and erase everyone’s debts. Oh, for another spoiler, when Syd and Knox start running, they run with this girl Marie, that Knox killed. The spoilers end here lol.

I don’t know if it’s just a thing in sci-fi, or in just book series. But it took a while before it got to Knox and Syd running away. I get that there needs to be setup, but besties, it took like 170 pages for them to start running. And it was the case of once things started happening, they didn’t stop. Like, it didn’t feel like there was much time for rest during the second half of the book. And while that can be a good thing, there were moments where I was sort of like, “Can we take a break from all the action now, please?” Like, even when the book slowed down for a moment, it was only for a moment because there was always something around the next corner to speed it back up.

Anyway, the books ends in a very Hunger Games: Catching Fire kind of way. Like, at the end of Catching Fire, when Miss Katniss is scooped up out of the arena and plopped into that ship where all her allies are like, “Hey, sis.” Proxy ends in a very similar way. I’m not going to say how it ends, because I don’t want to spoil more than I already have, but it ends with a good old classique cliffhanger with a little bit of a twist that I kind of saw coming, but also didn’t, because I may have or may have not forgotten about the plot point that incited the cliffhanger.

I don’t really know how I can definitively end this post, or even talk about the characters all that much, because Syd is this crusty poor kid, Knox is a spoiled rich kid who had to come to terms with not being surrounded with his comforts and with a hatred for his father, and Marie (the girl running with them) is a “causegirl” (as it’s written in the book) who basically wants to bring about the jubilee. And I feel like I can’t really write that much about the characters all that much since this is one of those books that tells one story over multiple books, so the characters’ arcs aren’t over by the end of this book. Like, Syd starts to accept his destiny in this book, but not fully. Knox is still headstrong and stubborn, but starts to loosen up, and Marie starts to show how committed to the cause she is.

But that’s where the issue lies for me making this post specifically. Since the book doesn’t have a definitive end to the story by the end of this book, I almost have to leave this post without a definitive end.

I’m definitely going to read the sequel, and that will likely be the next post. I am interested to see where the story goes, because Proxy did end when it was just getting good – which is, I guess, the point of a cliffhanger. Because it did make me want to read the next book. Although, just as a general point, I think I’d rather just have a story be told in a single book. And because of that, I’ll have my final thoughts on Proxy/Guardian in my next post. Sorry for the awkward ending lol.

Okay, bye!