Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

Title/Author: Inside Out (Inside Out #1) by Maria V. Snyder
Publisher/Date published: April 1st 2010 by Harlequin
How I got this book: own it.
Why I read this book: I've loved every book of the author I've read, so of course I'm gonna read her new series!

Goodreads summary: "Keep your head down. Don't get noticed. Or else. I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? Not like it's all that dangerous - the only neck at risk is my own. Until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution..."

Snyder has done it again! She's created a really interesting world that I enjoy exploring and learning its secrets. As always with different classes, there's a lot of prejudice going on between them. The scrubs believe the uppers look down on them and have a much easier life than they do. Why would you trust someone like that? You wouldn't, unless you'd absolutely have to. And when you're trying to start a revolution, you kind of have no other choice.

Trella has never known her parents, most scrubs don't. She had a care-mother, a job, that like every other job in Inside, is assigned to you. There is no such thing as birth control, so the number of scrubs keeps growing, while their space to live remains the same. They have 100-hour weeks, everyone works 10-hour shift, after which you have 10 hours off to eat/sleep. There's not much time to have fun.

Trella is a bit of a loner, she only has one real friend: Cog, one of the boys who was in the same care group as she was. She's known as Queen of the Pipes, because she not only cleans them, but uses them to travel between the levels and even sleeps in them to get away from all the people crowding everywhere.

Every once in a while a Prophet comes along, someone who claims to know a way out of Inside. Because of her reputation the latest one contacts Trella: he needs her help retrieving something from the Upper levels. Before she knows it she's in way over her head and suddenly everyone seems to be counting on her to lead the revolution.

I loved Trella, she is extremely loyal to Cogon, and this is what gets her into the whole mess to begin with, because he asked her to. She's courageous and curious and I love her for it. She's a well-rounded character, like I've come to expect of Snyder. She's suspicious of other people, but once you've gained her trust you've got a friend for life. She's a reluctant heroine, but starts to believe in herself along the way.

And Riley is perfection! I've always loved the love-interest in Snyder's books and Riley is no exception to this. He's an upper and is just such a nice boy. I enjoyed the chemistry between him and Trella. And I LOVED Sheepy, that was just adorable.

It's actually pretty scary that I can imagine this kind of thing happening in the future and the society Snyder created is complex and interesting in all its different workings. Instead of the magic she normally has in her books, there's really cool technology, which I loved.

The ending leaves me wanting to start the next book (Outside In) soon! It's coming out February 15th, and I'm really excited to get to it.

My rating: 4,5 stars