Book Review: Being Born with a Rusty Spoon in Your Mouth

Title: Being Born with a Rusty Spoon in Your Mouth 

Author: Liz Fe Lifestyle

Date: 2023

Publisher: Amazon

ISBN: none

Length: 76 pages

Illustrations: colorful drawings

Quote: "We hate the Metropolis because we envy it. Those who live there, the Rich, hold the power over us." 

After the collapse of civilization as we know it, a feudal class system appears and the Marxist revolution has a chance to be reenacted. Teen Shay, a middle-class "Helper" (apprentice weapons maker with a special gift for her trade), is drafted to make weapons for an impending attack on the Rich. Teen Tyde, a discontented Rich kid (son of a "Counsel" member--pun repeated, not explained, throughout), will have a crush on Shay when they meet. But this is a tale of war, not love...

It left me cold. Why so primal? Why can't anyone in this story use their human reason? Males have historically been allowed to blame testosterone for driving them to consider fighting ahead of any alternative, but starting and ending the narrative with a girl raises the false hope that a better alternative will at least be proposed...and it's not. I was disappointed by this short young adult novel. 

If, however, you like an easy-reading adventure story that's not sugar-coated for the tots, where the stakes are high, the main characters are in danger, and people they care about die, you might like Being Born with a Rusty Spoon in Your Mouth. 

If you're a girl who's tired of novels where the mention of a boy seems to cue the violins, he's male therefore somebody must fall in love with him, you might appreciate Shay's utterly unromantic attitude toward Tyde. There's a whole genre of romances for adults where the protagonist resolves her feelings about very rich people by marrying one. Shay's resemblance to the first girl Tyde thought he was in love with might give her a chance to do that, but she's made of tougher stuff than to admire a wimpy boy like Tyde, or pretend to do. Yay girls. It might be nice if this novel spun off sequels in which Tyde grows up brave and strong enough to deserve Shay, but it's also nice that, in today's world, publishers no longer insist that that's necessary.

Another thing you'll probably like about the printed book is the pictures. They came through larger than real life and made my digital preview copy hard to read, but they're very good, clear, evocative drawings.