Book Review: All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)

All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1) by Gabrielle Zevin

Format: Paperback (arc)
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 6th April 2012
Pages: 352
Main Characters: Anya, Win, Natty, Scarlet, Leo
Date Started: 17th March 2012
Date Finished: 21st March 2012
Rating Given: ***

Goodreads:
Sixteen year-old Anya becomes the head of a mafia family after her parents are both murdered by rival gangs. Although Anya is embrolied in the criminal world, she is determined to keep her brother and sister out of the mafia family, but her father's relatives aren't so keen to let them go. When Anya's violent ex-boyfriend is poisoned with contaminated chocolate – chocolate that is produced illegally by Anya's mafia family – she is arrested for attempted murder and sent to the notorious jail on Manhattan Island.

Eventually she is freed by the new D.A. in town, who believes she has been framed. But this D.A. is the father of Win, a boy at school to whom Anya feels irresistibly drawn, and her freedom comes with conditions. Win's father wants to be mayor, and he can't risk having his ambition jeopardised by rumours spreading that his son is seeing a member of a notorious crime family. Anya knows she risks the safety of her family by seeing Win again, but the feeling between them may be too strong to resist...

I had not actually heard of this book until someone wanted to swap it and it was on their list so I read the synopsis and it sounded good and different to what I have read before, I had to give it a try.

This book is something new for me which I did enjoy but not as much as what I thought I was going to. It is set in 2082 and there is a chocolate ban (could you imagine a world without chocolate? I for one can't) as well as other important living things on a need to use basis (I can actually imagine some of these things happening as we are already have a hosepipe ban in the summer). Anya's family is involved in the illegal chocolate business which she gets caught up in.

To start with I found it quite slow and nothing much was really happening and it wasn't until nearly halfway through when things started to get interesting.

What I love about this book is that when it gets going it is a very thrilling book where I have to read just one more chapter before I can put it down. I also like the fact that I never knew what was going to happen next. Also I liked that I thought I had everything figured out, for example, who was to blame and then everything changes again and again at one point I just couldn't keep up. I for one don't know who to trust in this book everyone seems a bit shady.

For her sixteen years Anya has had to deal with a lot of things and not any good things and because of this she is a strong person but I feel that at times she just acts this way so she doesn't seem weak. I like her character and I rout for everything to turn out in her favour which again doesn't always happen.

I love the style of writing that Zevin has used as to me it feels like more of a journal rather than a book which is probably the reason why I ended up getting so wrapped up in this book it just felt real.

There has been a lot of questions left unanswered which really makes me want to read the next one just so I know what happens next.

Overall a slow start but once it gets going it gets very interesting.