low-key voice of narrator tends to underscore the harshness of the fututristic dystopian landscape.

read this book as a kid, and i still think about it sometimes. really impactful to my young mind. i dont remember much, but i do remember loving how it was written/the author's voice.

I remember this book being dark but it's somehow just a BIT darker than I remember while also being LESS dark? I probably still read it too young, though, whoops. The ending is more rushed than I recall, and bittersweet at best, but overall, still good. (Use of the word "Cancelled" in context is extremely funny in this, The Year Of Our Lord 2020.)

Audiobook note: I listened to the version narrated by Jeremy Davies. He does a great job and his voice very much fits the setting,. My one complaint is that they play the same eerie, dramatic music over the start AND end of the book and it super doesn't go with the ending. Still a good narration, though!

I just read a review of this book, and I agree that it is F451 for lower-level readers....It's a story about the future after a large earthquake has destroyed most of the world. I love distopia books...especially ones that show the importance of books! Good book, wish that I had discovered it at a younger age...

Paints a uniquely interesting portrait of a dystopian future. The plot itself was a little underdeveloped. Covers many of the same themes as Freak the Mighty.

The new world of LBITU is well-drawn and riveting, despite the short length. In all of the Urb, Spaz is the only one who seems to be living for more than himself--and his odyssey to rescue his dying sister leads him through many adventures, all the way to the center of Eden. I really liked Spaz, although I felt that the plot twist with his father was fumbled a little bit.

A book that is fantastic in the world it creates, giving information on the go and never in too large of bursts. As far as info-dumps are concerned the only overly done is in the beginning. From there it becomes a smooth ride of ups and downs, twists and turns. The world is amazing in the way it's constructed, everything is in chaos, run by gangs while the "better" beings are held separate and away. And yet, there is an amazing beauty to this after-world as well as a horror to the beauty of the paradise they go to. I won't say too much on the plot, since I'm bad at that, just know it is definitely a book to read.
As far as post-apocalyptic worlds go, this is the one that got me interested in such stories.

This young adult book centers on a postapocalyptic world with factions fighting over resources and losing themselves to mindprobes and the distraction they offer. Spaz's seizures keep him from being able to use mindprobes, which means he is one of the few with memory. A journey to see his sister one last time leads him to be surrounded by a diverse band of characters, and the author asks us to consider the value of books and writing. What is the purpose in marking things down if there is no one to read? How ought we to live in a society? Do we live with less to share with all, do we hoard to improve our situation?