Cindy Pon

Jason Zhou is trying to survive in Taipei, a city plagued by pollution and viruses, but when he discovers the elite are using their wealth to evade the deadly effects, he knows he must do whatever is necessary to fight the corruption and save his city.

Want

** spoiler alert **
           want is very short for high stakes dystopian fiction, which makes it difficult to connect with most of the characters/events. two characters died, which was meant to be very important for the narrative, yet it was unemotional for me, even though the author attempted to make the mood despairing. the prose itself is not adequate at expressing emotion, danger, or anything too high stakes, so the book felt quite mellow throughout, which was clearly not the intention. i did like the romance, and if nothing else, it was a moderately enjoyable read. 3.5 stars.

Moth

I found it all in all exciting. I wasn't bored during the times Zhou was 'Jason'. When one thing fell, another thing picked up and you're too distracted to realize part of the plot was done and had moved to the next. The last 10% of this book I couldn't put down that I went to bed reading it and woke up and continued to read because I needed to know what happened after falling asleep reading it. 

Not only does this book speak of environmental issues, which isn't an issue that is heavily relied on for these books, but it deals also with the growing divide of the rich and poor populations, to how big the divide becomes, and the treatment of these people in epidemics.

(Full Review on my Blog)

“Fresh, compelling—and timely.” —Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carve the Mark and the Divergent series “Vividly conjured…positively chilling.” —The New York Times “Spectacular.” —Buzzfeed Set in a near-future Taipei plagued by pollution, a group of teens risk everything to save their city in this thrilling novel from critically acclaimed author Cindy Pon. Jason Zhou survives in a divided society where the elite use their wealth to buy longer lives. The rich wear special suits, protecting them from the pollution and viruses that plague the city, while those without suffer illness and early deaths. Frustrated by his city’s corruption and still grieving the loss of his mother who died as a result of it, Zhou is determined to change things, no matter the cost. With the help of his friends, Zhou infiltrates the lives of the wealthy in hopes of destroying the international Jin Corporation from within. Jin Corp not only manufactures the special suits the rich rely on, but they may also be manufacturing the pollution that makes them necessary. Yet the deeper Zhou delves into this new world of excess and wealth, the more muddled his plans become. And against his better judgment, Zhou finds himself falling for Daiyu, the daughter of Jin Corp’s CEO. Can Zhou save his city without compromising who he is, or destroying his own heart?

alexandra

4/5 –

this was so good!! a quick, action-packed, futuristic story with all the asian rep! it made me want to visit taipei so badly. the story reminded me of marie lu’s legend, but also was original in its own way. i loved daiyu’s character and the plot twist was so great!!! jason kinda annoyed me at some times (he can be sO NAIVE and DUMB) and the plot was a liiiitle predictable but i still enjoyed it.

Jamieson

MY MOST ANTICIPATED 2017 RELEASE LIVED UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS! oh the joy ! Not to mention I now own a book thats beautiful inside and out. Truly Cindy Pon has blessed me 😭 😭

The closest thing I can compare WANT to is Six of Crows - except it's Six of Crows but with characters of the exact opposite motivations. The SoC team are all chaotic bads, but the WANT crew are all chaotic goods. Jason Zhou, and the crew of friends behind him just want to help their city - they just want to stop the pollution, the corruption, and help those around them live a healthier life. 

WANT is set in future Taipei, a city in which the rich were suits that generates air for them. The city is incredibly polluted, and those who can't afford the suits die early from breathing the toxic air. There's widespread poverty, pollution and sickness in Taipei. Jason and friends decide to tackle this injustice head on, by infiltrating and taking down the corrupt corporation that manufactures the suits and perpetuates the continued inequality and injustice against the poor. 


  



The thing I liked most about this book is how relevant it was If you can't see the similarities in this book and the actual world we live in ..... what rock are YOU living under? Environmentalism is a huge issue, pollution is on the rise, the gap between the rich and poor gets bigger - and despite it all most of us sit, watch, and do nothing. I think WANT tackled a lot of environmental and political issues head on, and did it in a really good way. Pon shows us the way the government is exploiting the poor, and how little they care about their needs. We're shown the huge difference between the rich and the poor, and the suffering of the 没 (mei: have nots)

I think Cindy Pon addressed and tackled these issues really well. The themeing was really tight, it was obvious what ideas this book was presenting, and then they were dealt with concisely. I loved this narrative of teens realising there is injustice, and taking it down in a way that meaningful. 

I also loved the setting Set in a future Taipei, the setting was tangible to me. I felt transported to the city, I felt like I was within the smog covered streets and it was so easy to picture and grasp the setting fully. The worldbuilding was great! The technology and aesthetic of the future, and how this was incorporated with the social and political aspects of the world was excellent. 

REPRESENTATION WANT features Jason Zhou, who's ethnically from the Han majority. Of the other crew member, one (Victor) is from the Philippines, one (Arun) is Indian. Lingyi is Chinese and bisexual, and Iris is in a relationship with Lingyi. Her sexuality is not stated but she is in a f/f relationship. 

An #OwnVoices (For Taiwanese rep) review

Finally, I really enjoyed the crew here too While I would have loved to see more development overall, I did quite enjoy the group dynamics. The scenes of the kids laughing together, teasing eachother and hanging out were some of my favourites. There is also a side relationship between two girls in the crew which I loved and I hope is more prominent in Book2: RUSE. 


  The truth was a harsh and ugly one: in order to change the status quo, we had to be destructive. Seize control of the narrative. Redirect the plot.


On the little downside I had to dock a star for two reasons. First of all, I didn't enjoy the romance in this one. I found the trope of wooing the girl really cliche and I didn't really love how it played out in WANT. I liked Daiyu as a character, and I think she's brilliant and smart - I just don't love that trope.

I also had pacing issues. I thought this book would be more action packed but it did drag a little in the middle. The romance focus, rather then action focus, was a little bit of a let down to me. 




I REALLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK and it's soo slept on! The whole premise is amazing - if you're looking for the next Six of Crows LOOK NO FURTHER. The setting, theming and group dynamics are so tight, and I adored this crew of characters so much. Plus this book is fucking beautiful in real life yo !

Cannot wait for RUSE, the sequel. I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2019 THATS INJUSTICE

Annabella

This book was eerie and refreshing at the same time

Zack

Cindy Pon writes a wonderfully crafted story of the self-preservation of the rich. In Want, people need to live in suits to filter out toxic chemicals. However, most people can't afford the rich lifestyle of the suits. In this story, Jason Zhou infiltrates the elite society with the help of his friends and tries to take down Jin Corp. who manufactures the suits and possibly be the cause of the pollution.

nathan gonzalez

Meh

Mediocre writing and soke large plot holes. Predictable, but was pretty low stakes the whole time,even the death of main character glossed over for a love story.

Fraser Simons

Taipei in an alternate near future.
Mei: without; pronounced “may.”
You: to have; pronounced “yo.”

Cyberpunk has roots in horror. The loss of agency is supposed to evoke a sense of terror such that we give pause about the technological advances. Want subverts this. Climate change is arguably too far gone in Taiwan. There’s dense pollution that strips away one of the most heralded benefits of technology: the advancement of the human life span. People in Taiwan in the future now can only hope to live to 60. Hope. They breathe in pollution, their apathy literalized in the fiction. Killing them. The anxiety we should have around climate change is the focus rather than the technophobia of the late 80s and early 90s. Unless you’re rich, of course. 

The disparity in the wealth gap has gone rampant. No more middle class. It’s just the haves and the have nots. The super-rich traverse the city in gilded cages. There are galas and events. The biomod trends of the week flaunted by dilettantes at fancy events are confined to indoors, away from the pollution. Outdoors, they navigate life in 20 million dollars suits that feed clean air and create proprietary, insulated, social networks. 

“She was pretty in a way I wasn’t used to. Not like most you girls bowing to the latest beauty trends, indulging in temporary body modifications from reshaping their noses to plumping their lips, or hips, or rears, depending on what was in. You boys kept pace with pec implants and by buying new, chiseled jawlines. But fads came and went, and the yous altered their looks as often as the seasons. The meis, lacking the funds for such drastic changes, resorted to painting their faces in bright colors, using semipermanent tattoos, and dyeing their hair.” 

This too is a subversion. Where cyberpunk usually has a microworld navigated, invoking the “new world” notion of Westerns, this instead turns the trope on its head, moving past the microworld exploration. Considering that’s a very western perspective that also comes along with colonial aspects you see in cyberpunk, it’s a very important and satisfying subversion. 

There is essentially no physical connection for those people living their lives in these suits and this extrapolates out into the fiction to communicate the lens of the super-rich who miss what is happening to the majority of the population in the city. They compartmentalize their lives such that they can be apathetic about the troubles that don’t affect them directly. Their long lives and voluntary isolationism are meant to augment their lives parallels the current anxieties regarding technology and the ways in which people now are using social media networks to isolate ourselves into specific groups. Curating the content we consume so that we can dismiss anything we are not interested in. 
“This is what it meant to be a you, to have. To be genetically cultivated as a perfect human specimen before birth—vaccinated and fortified, calibrated and optimized.”

It’s in this world that Zhou and his crew hatch a plan to save their city by way of radical action. He kidnaps a young woman (with the “richest” suit), ransoms her, and uses a “sleep spell” drug to erase this memory. After pulling off this kidnapping he infiltrates high society with their newly garnered 300 million. New apartment in a highly sought-after building. New suit; a new life. Using his purchased social status, he’s to gain the confidence of Jin Corps’ CEO’s daughter: Daiyu. 

But…when he discovers that she’s the one he kidnapped and starts to play the part of the rich boy a little too well, things start to get complicated. The more time they spend together the more he finds out she’s not what he expected and begins to fall for her.

Zhou is not an anti-hero and he’s not anti-social. He does have a directly actionable plan against the major problem in Taiwan: Jin Corp. Which is in line with a lot of cyberpunk fiction. They manufacture the suits and without them the super-rich will have to confront the world they live in, ostensibly putting their resources into cleaning up the environment. The city’s economy is very much tied to this megacorporation, but the morality and ideals outweigh the possible economic problems for this group. 

“…feathered wings, like swans, or transparent wings, gilded in silver and gold. The love for all things supernatural, fey, and demonic was the current rage among Taiwan’s youth, and the yous took it to the next level, surgically altering their physique, adding horns and tails, scaling their skin, be it mermaid or dragon. They were same-day walk-in alteratios at the physique surgeons, and the changes cast off in a week or two, replaced by some other trend.” 

Not to mention, the destruction of the headquarters is more of a call to arms for everyone in the city than something that would actually destroy the company. But there is a tangible sense of hopelessness for the poor in Taiwan. Nothing can really be done, aside from making your life as comfortable as possible in a world where catching the flu could kill you because you can’t afford health care. It’s pretty solidly a group of punks trying to disrupt the status quo.

Interestingly, young adult fiction in itself is a subversion of cyberpunk motifs and tropes. It grounds this story in a different kind of emotion than those found in the genre if we generalize it. There is often anger that is directly implemented to hinder a corporation. But most of the fiction humanizes all of the characters, even the super-rich and this is not typical at all. Often the rich barely resembles humanity, and the anti-hero embodies some of those characteristics in order to have agency and strike back. Here, there is a palpable ignorance attached to the rich… but no sense that they’re evil for being born into privilege. 

The thick, stagnant air reeked of perfume, cigarettes, and exhaust. Everyone was barefaced, wanting to flaunt their features instead of hiding beneath blank masks. To be able to flirt with their lips, to be able to kiss. But I wasn’t fooled by the dark—the air was still poisonous. Even if we couldn’t see the brown haze, it smothered our city lit in neon. 

The romance weaved into the story also makes for a very different feeling fiction than most cyberpunk; it was very refreshing. There is a certain detachment in cyberpunk fiction that is usually associated with the isolationism we have anxieties about is contrasted well in this fiction with this notion that a young man puts everything on the line to blow up a company doing real evil to the world is conflicted because his socialization with people he has dehumanized his whole life no longer gives him that easy alibi of dehumanizing them. The natural way our own lenses are restricted in reality makes it easy to empathize and invest in Zhou’s experiences. His mission and his heart are at cross-purposes and that’s hitting a trope, sure, but it’s a satisfying one because it doesn’t come loaded with the other tropes you usually find with it. His target is no damsel in distress, for instance. 
“Employees who would be out of a job if our plan succeeded. I knew that in order to bring about a revolution, not only would yous be hurt in the process, but many meis as well. It was something else I had to learn to live with.”

The dialogue is also great. The prose, especially surrounding emotional moments, are particularly great and memorable. The heist angle coupled with the YA tropes and subversions put me on my toes, never sure what might happen next as expectations were set only to be discarded. The closest thing I can think of in the sub-genre is The Summer Prince and that just makes me think I’d like to see more YA in cyberpunk. 

“It was so easy to be you. And to lack and want were the complete opposite: hard, cold, unrelenting, and hollow.”

What knocks it out of the park is the insertion of climate fiction anxieties. It’s relevant, interesting, emotional and in the news all the time now. It’s an emerging sub-genre. Ecopunk, solarpunk, climate fiction, eco-fiction, etc. There’s neon, stun guns, evil corporations, futuristic technology, pervasive pollution, and a pretty damn fun heist. I also have to imagine that it must have been more than cathartic for Cindy Pon to write characters that look like her in a genre that sometimes uses marginalized identities to telegraph edginess and dehumanization of societal structures. It turns out that life on the edge is just as riveting when the characters are believable and marginalization is handled from a non-white lens. 

Granted, I don’t know much about young adult fiction… but I think that cyberpunk isn’t going anywhere. Of that I’m sure. Authors with the ability to connect some of the larger and more intrinsically important aspects of the genre in new ways will end up displaying how far the genre has come and its future. It makes a certain kind of sense that one of the more recent and thoroughly enjoyable additions to the sub-genre stems from this partnership with young adult fiction. Who else is a new kind of cyberpunk for than the younger generation living with old anxieties? 

“Truth is, reality always crushes your ideals…Just wait and see.”

Flavia Louise

Bec Taylor

YA sci-fi dystopian written by an Asian author, set in Asia: YES YES YES. 
Brilliant. Can’t wait to read the next one in the series.

Sheila

THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD!!!!! SERIOUSLY, READ IT!!!!

Jolien De Landsheer

I have to admit I'm a little bit disappointed in this book. I've heard so many great things about this YA sci fi set in Taipei, so my expectations were admittedly somewhat high. The main reasons I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to are: 

a) one of the events in the synopsis only happens 200 pages into this 320 page book
b) from the first page, the main character is incredibly attached to a girl he is supposed to immensely dislike, for no reason
c) I felt like I didn't actually know any of the characters beyond the one characteristic I kept getting clobbered over the head with: stealthy, emotionally closed-off Iris, kind computer genius Lingyi, Zhou who lost his mom early on in life & likes to climb, Arun who is a scientist, Victor who dresses well and pretends to not care about anyone but really loves them. that's all you really get to know about these people, and it keeps being repeated throughout the book, again and again
d) everything was too easy. every obstacle or issue that came up was solved so easily
e) the plot twist was predictable from chapter 2. 

I realize this all sounds really negative now. I still gave this book 3 stars, which means I did enjoy reading it! I would still recommend it as a solid YA science fiction novel, especially being an ownvoices book set in Taipei. Perhaps it would be better going into it without sky-high expectations - which is entirely my fault, tbh. 

Emily

4.5 stars!

I was never bored while reading this book, and that to me is one of the most important factors in determining how much I enjoyed a story. This society was both intriguing and shocking as it could truly be how our world functions in the future.

The characters in this book were all very likable as well, and I appreciated the diversity involved in the story including LGBTQ+ characters, and that this book took place in a futuristic Taiwan rather than the usual European country or America. 

Overall, this was a super entertaining read, and I'm excited for the sequel!

Alexia Cambaling

Warning: Mild spoilers

Want is a book I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for some time now, but have not been able to. I couldn’t find it in local bookstores or my college library so I was delighted to see it in Scribd. When I finally got my hands on it, it was the very definition of a book you can’t put down. It’s that good. It’s unfortunate I don’t see many people talking about it and it seems pretty underrated.

Want is set in a futuristic Taipei, an undefined number of years into the future. Here, pollution is so bad the mei (have-nots) would be lucky to live to forty, while the you (haves) stay in enclosed regulated spaces or wear special suits that supply them with good air and regulates their body temperature when outside.

Jason Zhou (his Chinese name never gets revealed) and his friends Victor, Arun, Lingyi, and Iris are mei. When Arun’s mom is killed, they become galvanized to take action against Jin Corporation, the company which manufactures the suits- and maybe even the pollution that makes the suits necessary for survival. In doing so, Jason kidnaps Daiyu, his daughter and uses the ransom money to disguise himself as a you and destroy the corporation from the inside.

I am in love with this book. Like, I’ve been obsessing with it since I finished it and while theoretically, you can read it as a standalone, I knew there was a sequel going into it and I now have this need for it. Want is such an incredibly satisfying sci-fi read and it’s so beautifully well-written, diverse, and fast-paced that I don’t know why it’s so relatively underrated on Goodreads.

Jason Zhou is a fascinating and complex character. He’s stubborn and loyal, he sticks to his convictions but there are moments when he can get conflicted. Especially when it comes to Daiyu. I’m not a big fan of the romance as it can feel a bit like insta-love but I didn’t mind it too much here as I’ve read worse. Jason sticks to his mission and carries it out, despite his romantic feelings. I honestly really admire that and despite the things he learned along the way, he doesn’t really get sidetracked.

His group of friends are also wonderfully written and characterized. From Victor, the suave grifter, to Arun, the genius scientist, Lingyi the boss and hacker, to Iris, they are all so layered and loyal to each other. I’ve become a fan of the found family trope lately and this book delivers. The found family between this group of friends is wonderful and they are all diverse as well. Iris’ specific ethnicity is unknown (but she is Asian) I think but Zhou and Lingyi are Chinese, Arun is South Asian, I think, while Victor is Filipino.

Each of them has a part to play in their mission and no one is really a wasted character. Everyone is vital without whom the rest would fail. Each of their parts were set-up and executed well and really, I’m down for a great friend group in books.

I really liked the world-building in this book. It’s fleshed out nicely and it’s so easy to imagine and get lost in this futuristic Taipei. Cindy Pon’s writing is beautiful and she paints images with words. Reading this book felt like watching a very immersive movie set in some near-to-distant cyberpunk future.

I think one of the many reasons I love this book is because it addresses pollution and climate change. At the start of the book, the group of friends basically state their reason as wanting to sea blue skies again. Pollution has become a big problem apparent in major Asian cities lately- partly due to the large population- and I liked that Cindy Pon tackles the issue and also talks about the corporations profiting of the corruption while the rich living in their bubbles shrug it off. It was really well done and I enjoyed how it really lives up to being cyberpunk (i.e. underdogs taking on the rich and powerful).

Want is such a fast-paced and enthralling read. I don’t think I can overstate how hard it was to put down. I started it one night and finished the book the morning after. There are no lulls, no boring stretches, only a mission with an end that everyone wants to see through. It was great and satisfying.

Overall, I can highly recommend Want to just about anybody. It’s wonderful, it’s diverse, it has a great and satisfying plot, the characters are compelling, and it has rich and descriptive worldbuilding. Honestly, it has everything I can ask for in a science fiction book. While I do think you can read this as a standalone, I will be definitely picking up the next one. It does leave you wanting more.

This review is also on  The Bookworm Daydreamer

Leelynn Brady

Full review on my blog Sometimes Leelynn Reads

Lorien O'Brien

Want is a brilliant sci-fi about a world that we refuse to work on cleaning up. The rich and powerful are so lost in their own world that ours is a complete mess. There's no more blue sky, no more seeing the horizon, no more seeing stars at night (that alone KILLS me). We don't focus on taking care of our earth and the result is short life spans for the poor, and frickin Darth Vader suits for the rich.

Zhou is our main character and when his best friend's mom is murdered he and his friends are determined to find out who did it and bring them down, and maybe save the world too. The plan is simple: infiltrate the upper class or yous (pronounced yo) and destroy the factory where the suits are powered. And to do so is connect with the daughter of the manufacturer, Daiyu Jin.

It's brilliant and beautiful and I was spellbound, hoping to see how Zhou and his friends made it through to the end, if they even could at all. I loved how Daiyu and Zhou connected and their relationship didn't feel fake or rushed at all, nice and slow and wonderful.

If you haven't picked this book up, I implore you to do so. Not only is it a fun and awesome story, it's a look at a very bleak, and very possible future that I most certainly DON'T want.

Wren Hardwick

So I have mixed feelings about this. I didn’t really like the narrator that much, so it might have affected the way I felt about the book as a whole. 

So the whole aspect of the book with pollution in the air was unique and kind of scary to think that it could possibly be a future for us here on Earth. Those who are rich enough have suits that filter their air and those who are poor breath the polluted air and die young because of it.

So that’s the whole idea of the book. A bunch of poor kids want to break into the rich people’s place of business and such and get suits for people who need them. It’s a whole political pull between the poor and rich and what people need verse what people want. 

A lot of people have compared this to the Six of Crows duology, and I for sure can see the resemblance. But the character building and growth and the twist of Six of Crows was lacking here for me. The main hero was a little lacking in personality and the supporting characters didn’t support very well for me. 

It was an interesting read, but I really don’t see myself reading it again.

Now, I do feel that this would be a great movie franchise, or a streaming-original series. It has a great premise to it all... and maybe it is just on the wrong platform for execution. Does that make sense? Probably not. 

---

Is this not the ugliest cover you have ever seen?

Want

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