Review of The Jewel

The Jewel

Author: Amy Ewing

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 978-0-06-223578-7

Summary

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.

Review

This is such a hard review for me to write. I’ve had this on my reading list for quite some time, because with such a gorgeous cover, how could I not love it? I started out loving the book, and then it turned into a train wreck. 

Violet Lasting is a surrogate. She and other girls who are gifted with the ability to perform the Auguries and are trained in detention facilities until they are auctioned off to royalty to be surrogate mothers, as the royalty are unable to have their own children. In a similar design to Panem in the Hunger Games, the Lone City is also in concentric rings. At the heart of the city is the Jewel, the wealthiest sector, and it is where the royalty lives. Then there is the Bank full of merchants. The next ring is the Smoke containing the factories, the Farm with the farmland, and the Marsh, the poorest of the districts. Violet, originally from the Marsh, is torn away from her family and now the surrogate of the Duchess of the Lake, one of the founding royal families from the Jewel. Her life is no longer her own, and Violet desperately wants to survive in the pit of vipers hidden by luxury.

What initially drew me into the story was the writing style. It really reminds me of The Selection with decadent and vivid descriptions of gowns, hair, decorations, food, etc. The writing is straightforward and easy to read, and I did not have to spend much time wondering what was happening. 

Next, the mystery created at the beginning is wonderful. While we know the purpose of the surrogates and the surrogate auction is for the royalty to buy girls to have their children, the exact details of why girls who can use the Auguries is a mystery. And, when Lucien, the Cinna-replacement and man tasked with prepping Violet for the auction, says, “You’re a Smart girl. Maybe smart enough to survive this place,” I was hooked. What was so dangerous about the Jewel? 

Now enters the Duchess of the Lake, the woman who purchases Violet. When a surrogate is murdered, the Duchess tells Violet: 

“I’ve always found it . . . humbling, how one tiny drop of plant extract can completely destroy a human being. We are so fragile, aren’t we? One little sip of wine and then . . . nothing. Life is so easily snuffed out . . . Welcome to the Jewel.”

Oh. My. Goodness. Murder and Intrigue. I want more. And that is when the book goes downhill, rapidly. Violet promptly throws a temper tantrum, and in her fit of anger she destroys the lavish dresses provided to her by the Duchess? And in her next big act of retaliation, she uses the first Augury to turn a portrait of the Duchess green? I am *amazed* by her acts of rebellion. She laments her life as a surrogate — and rightfully so if she is a slave — but quite frankly, I fail to see why her life is all that bad. Her family in the Marsh was destitute, and as a surrogate, she is given every luxury. She has food and clothing and a suite of rooms all for herself. She was educated and given whatever she desired, except her freedom from being a surrogate. Where the surrogates are practically slaves, Violet does not experience any of the abuse and worse that such a situation might lead to, and would also make her hatred of her lifestyle more believable. There are hints that the other surrogates are in some ways abused, but it is easily glossed over by Violet’s description of the unlikeability of the other surrogates — she called one of them the Iced Cake! How demeaning. Violet’s small acts of rebellion can barely be considered as such, and for the most part, she goes along with it while whining about how horrible her life is. Pampered princess. It makes Violet uninteresting and dislikeable, not a good sign in a main character.

But all this would have been easily forgivable until we get to insta-love, when the book crashed and burned. Time to go vomit. Violet meets Ash, a boy from the Smoke and a companion (do read between the lines) for the Duchess’s niece. They have a brief conversation about music, and then bam! Violet pines over a guy she has only met one and will likely never see again. Violet is the perfect submissive surrogate the the Duchess, and she and Ash start sneaking around even though surrogates and companions are prohibited from interacting with anyone but the people who bought them, least of all each other. So following insta-love, Violet and Ash say forget the rules and if we are caught together we will be executed, let’s have a relationship. And let’s make it as cheesy and gag-worthy as possible, employing practically every cliche from Twilight. Yup. A Twilight comparison. Things just got bad. And then comes my most hated line. When a scene between Violet and Ash starts to heat up, he says, “If we don’t stop this now, I’m afraid . . . I’m afraid I’ll never want to stop.” It’s a step up from the rape sounding line of I won’t be able to stop, but its not much better. Violet is a surrogate who the Duchess wants to bear her daughter and they fool around as if their lives aren’t in enough danger already. 

From there, the plot follows to its inevitable conclusion. Before Violet met Ash, Lucien offered Violet a way to escape her horribly pathetic life, and when she is finally given the chance to leave, she ruins it for Ash. The the guy she just met. I hate insta-love. No believable character whose life is in danger is going to risk escaping such a horrible life for a boy they just met. 

So, a recap. 1. Violet is a surrogate and she hates that she is a broodmare and she whines that she has the most horrible life ever living in luxury she wouldn’t have otherwise. 2. Insta-love. 3. Risks chance of escape for insta-love boy. My conclusion: Violet’s life is not actually all that horrible. 

Aside from the horrible ending, the naming conventions in the book were weird. Everyone from the Marsh is named after a color — Violet for her Violet eyes, Ochre, Raven, Hazel . . . People from the Smoke, like Ash, are named after factory related things. The Royalty in the Jewel are named after . . . wait for it . . . jewels. There is a Garnet, Opal, Pearl, Carnelian, and the list continues. And despite the predictability of naming patterns, it would not be quite so awkward if not for Annabelle and Lucien, two characters whose names do not fit into pattern. And as a sidenote, are there people from the Farm be named Plow and Tractor?

The female characters in this book are either vapid and/or dislikable surrogates and weak, or they are powerful and therefore evil or ugly or both. Violet is supposedly the only good character who does not have some major character failing, and she is just downright boring. 

Overall, this book had such promise. I think I am disappointed most that there were so many opportunities to really question the morality of surrogacy as portrayed in this fashion or to delve into the political failings and operations of the Lone City, but instead everything of substance that lays beneath the surface is largely ignored in favor of vapid descriptions of clothing and insta-love. Despite the enticing beginning, this quick and easy read completely missed its mark on the followthrough. It’s worth a read but don’t expect anything life changing. 

Cover: 5/5
Writing style: 5/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters/character development: 2/5

Overall score: 3.5/5