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Set in Nova Scotia, Canada, No Place for Eco-Sinners follows young Robyn over a few years of her life, starting at age thirteen. Robyn is a rather unexceptional girl, though her love for pollution sets her apart from others her age. Yes, you read that right. She loves pollution. Because of her refusal to recycle and conform to the environmental-friendly conventions of modern society, Robyn is an outcast with no friends. Then one day, Robyn meets Syd, another kid who loves pollution just as much she she does. However, Syd is not an ordinary boy; he is the personification of the Sydney Tar Ponds, a nearby site of waste pollution from a steel factory. Though Syd is merely the product of Robyn’s imagination, an imaginary friend of sorts, to Robyn, he is very real. Unfortunately, pesky environmentalists are working to bury the Sydney Tar Ponds and replace it with a park. Their success equals death for Robyn’s best friend.
The first thing I noticed when I opened this book was the unconventional formatting. At least three different fonts appeared within the book, none of which would be considered acceptable within the academic world, and one of which I can only describe as “childish chalkboard print.” All of these fonts were, to put it bluntly, ridiculously large. Even set to the smallest option, I couldn’t tolerate reading this book on my Kindle because only thirteen lines would fit on a single page, with an average of five words per line. I had no choice but to read on my PC, where I could zoom out to a more reasonable size. The margins of the page were also very large, allowing fewer words to fit on a single page and increasing the overall page count. Paragraphs were centered on the page in some chapters and aligned to the left in others. The depth of paragraph indentation also varied chapter to chapter, if paragraphs were indented at all. Either the author knows nothing about proper formatting, or she intentionally chose to slap the publishing world in the face by doing things her own way.
Because of all of this non-standard formatting, this book was actually much shorter than I anticipated and resulted in an extremely quick read. During most of the hour that I spent reading this story, I was trying to figure out whether this was truly a parody or not. My instinct told me that it must be a parody – certainly the author is trying to point out how silly and insane it is for someone to support pollution – and I couldn’t help laughing out loud at the absurd situations presented throughout the story.
However, the prologue indicates that this is a “true story,” so there is always the chance that it is not meant to be a parody. If not, it’s nothing short of extremely disturbing, and I can’t imagine that anyone would take it seriously or hold it in high regards. Aside from the unprofessional formatting, there are too many other problems with the story. The characters are flat without much development at all, and conversations between teenagers and adults are childish and unrealistic. Then, out of left field, paranormal elements appear without any follow-up explanation, and the story suddenly ends without any sort of resolution.
I am giving this story an official rating of 2 out of 4 stars. I am only rating it this high because it made me laugh so much. If you choose to read this book, I recommend going into the same way that I did. Think of it as a parody and enjoy laughing at how silly it is. Then don’t forget to properly sort your recycling.
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