This was a strange book to read - I had it on my Goodreads list for over 2-years and finally got a copy but i'm not sure whether I like it or not. Marketed for YA but a little dark, a great premise but i'm not sure about the writing style. All in all, an interesting read and something i'd probably say was best suited for the mid-late teens rather than me!

This book has a bizarre premise that reminded me of books like Landscape with Invisible Hand, The Divergent series and the Wind Singer series. The protagonist and his family are tiny, palm-sized people, completely at the mercy of the bigger, wealthier ruling class. This satirical story doesn't shy away from the unpleasant reality of life as a second-class citizen; most of the small people have to 'hustle' to survive, and a large subplot revolves around the protagonist's sister's attempts to bag a wealthy husband who will pay to 'upscale' her brother. The book is written in a fictional dialect which is reminiscent of AAVE and other recognised dialects that are unfairly perceived as 'incorrect English', I would encourage students who choose this book to research the 'social capital' scheme which is being piloted in China, as well as wealth inequality and poverty in the UK.

In an alternate reality a lot like our world, every person's physical size is directly proportional to their wealth. The poorest of the poor are the size of rats, and billionaires are the size of skyscrapers.

Warner and his sister Prayer are destitute - and tiny. Their size is not just demeaning but dangerous: day and night they face mortal dangers that bigger, richer people don't ever have to think about, from being mauled by cats to their house getting stepped on. There are no cars or phones built small enough for them, or schools or hospitals, for that matter - there's no point, when no one that little has any purchasing power, and when salaried doctors and teachers would never fit in buildings so small. Warner and Prayer know their only hope is to scale up, but how can two littlepoors survive in a world built against them?

This is such an original story and darkly comic in it's portrayal of wealth and status in society. It drew me in with the weird use of language and grammar but I didn't get the warm and fuzzy feeling the blurb promised. A great concept and metaphor, but overdone in places I felt.

Sorry. Thought I'd already done this... :-)
This was a very interesting read... Great metaphor/allegory. Really liked the wealth = size concept and it was pretty well handled throughout. Felt a bit like a Disney cartoon in places (not in a bad way!) with the mis-adventures of the 'little-poor'. But I was generally charmed and involved in their story. The dreamworld/real-world contrasts were quite interesting too, adding another dimension to the story.
The unusual use of language was nicely done. I could see a few of these words becoming common in the near future! Very smart. And I would often find such things slightly jarring, but here it worked nicely with the whole slightly surreal feel of the story.
Not sure who the 'target' audience might be, but it's worth a read by anyone who fancies something a little different from the normal crime-thriller, 'girl ...' stories...

I was incredibly conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I really admire the originality of the author: the world he creates, where people's size varies depending on how wealthy they are, is incredibly creative, and provides an excellent social commentary as well as an entertaining background. On the other hand, however, I found this book very hard to read.

While I appreciate the thought that must have gone behind inventing a whole new language for the world, I found it incredibly difficult to understand what was being said. Perhaps it was due to the ARC formatting, or maybe that was the actual intention, but too many times I was faced with words smashed together and sentences that just made no sense on a first reading. I had to go back and re-read several times in order to understand what was going on, and that just made it impossible for me to enjoy the book as much as I would have wanted to. I also found the dreamworld to be a tad too complex for my liking, and struggled to understand without re-reading whole passages.

I didn't particularly like the characters, but I feel that may have been the original intention: none of them seem to be particularly likable from the start, with Warner (our narrator) being the only one to seemingly make an effort but ultimately being worn down by his dire circumstances and the exploitation to which he is subject. With unlikeable characters and a plot I struggled to appreciate fully, however, this book soon fell flat for me. I seriously considered DNF'ing multiple times, but ultimately stuck it out in the hopes that it would get better. Alas, for me it didn't.

As I said, I really appreciate the idea behind this, but the execution just didn't work for me.

I admit I skim-read the last 25%; I tried to read more carefully, but at this point, either I skimmed or I DNFed, and I don’t like DNFing.

It is not without good ideas and potential, and it delivers good criticism of a society based on money: in this case, money literally defines your weight in the world, since the poorest people are tiny and get squished by just about anything and anyone, while the richest ones are so big that they tower over everyone and take a lot of space. The plight of the characters, too—the way they have to fight, the desperate schemes they come up with, are (unfortunately, realistically) close to reality, in that when you don’t have much, no matter how you try, your attempts are conditioned by the little means you have. (I do agree that “you have to make efforts to achieve your dreams”, but let’s be honest, it’s very easy to give lessons about how you managed to buy the house of your dreams when you got a nifty inheritance from your grandparents. Prayer’s plan to find herself a husband, as harebrained as it is, does reflect a desperate attempt at doing something with nothing.)

However, I couldn’t really connect with the characters, nor get into the writing style, which tends to combine words together. I get it, I get why it’s done, but for me, it’s jarring (took me a bit of time to realise that the “munmun” of the title is money, although that was because I wasn’t pronouncing it, only reading it at first). It’s like all those cutesy words like ‘preloved’ and ‘choccy’ and all that stuff which, for some reason, is considered as witty, but just falls flat as far as I’m concerned. After a while, I lose interest.

More like 1.5 stars for me, however, I do acknowledge that there are good ideas in here.

What a strange book, I think I enjoyed it..... It's a fantastic idea, what is all the poor people were as small as a rat and rich people were giants. How would they co-exist? A clever idea and written in a very modern and quirky way.

Plot: Imagine a world where your wealth determines your physical size – where people scurry around the size of rats avoiding those who are bigger than buildings. This is where Warner and his sister, Prayer, live. After their father’s death from a clumsy larger child and mother’s injury, they set out into the world to try and make their way – to increase their education, wealth and size. But the world isn’t quite so accepting of them, landing them in all sorts of situations.

My thoughts: The blurb of this book really drew me in and I was excited to read it, but sadly it fell short of my expectations. I’d anticipated reading something more of a dystopian fantasy fiction novel that explored the politics of this strange world, but what I got was something a bit confused and confusing. Sadly the way it was written just didn’t gel with me – I can totally understand why it was written like this, to mimic the limited education and understanding that the smaller people have, but it just hindered my enjoyment of it. I also struggled to gel with the storyline, finding it pretty dragging. The dream world that they fall into at night was a very strange fantasy world it took a while for me to get my head round. Like I said, a really interesting premise that hasn’t quite reached my expectations, though others have loved it for the reasons I didn’t click with it, so give it a go if the blurb intrigues you anyway!

A very apt novel for our time- maybe for all time. It centres on Warner as he and his friend go with his sister, with a plan for her to ensnare a rich husband so that she can better herself. Of course this is a lot harder than it is made to appear. Based in a world similar to ours but where your worth is based on your size, this book had a lot to get you thinking.

I really wanted to like this book. The idea of it is a really good one: you are the size of your bank balance. So, if you are very poor, you’re tiny (about the size of a rat) and if you’re ridiculously rich, you’re taller than a sky scraper: and there are all the sizes in between. The bank is in charge of either making you bigger or smaller.
Warner and Prayer are ‘Littles’ and live a hard life, trying to avoid being stood on, eaten by cats or generally being injured in any way (hospitals can’t treat them). Prayer decided that she wants to ‘Upscale’ by finding herself a Middle scale Law student to marry, and so their adventures begin.
Now, Littles are rarely educated, or are minimally so, and this is where MY difficulties with this story began (right at the beginning, truth be told). The language. It’s written phonetically most of the time: words join with others, into longer, difficult to understand words, there are some words that are made up for the purposes of the story (munmun being one such). Sentences seem to be either overlong or very short. I had to concentrate really hard on this (for the record, I’ve read A Clockwork Orange and Ridley Walker, and coped just fine!). I know this is a YA book, and the main character is a child (14/15 years old), and perhaps the author was trying to convey this in the way the language came across. To me, he seemed a bit hyperactive, unable to concentrate, frenzied, a bit dim-witted in some things and really clever with others. Perhaps this was to emulate his lack of education and his youth? I don’t know. Honestly, it was something of a relief to finish it.
However, I DID like the ending - it was fitting. It’s just the journey to get there was pretty arduous!

An interesting concept of size correlated to economic status. I loved the writing style and while the language was a bit hard to get used to (joined up words, phonetic spellings etc) it was well worth the effort. Refreshingly different

A winning premise, with memorable scenes and characters. In addition to being a good yarn, it's an interesting way to approach the ever-increasing problem of social inequality.

I loved the premise of this book, but sadly it missed the spot for me. I found the writing too immature at times, and a little rushed in places, and it didn't encourage me to read further, sadly.

The plot (in a spoiler-free nutshell): Warner and his lil sis Prayer are littlescale, rat size, cos they have not much cash. Warner and Prayer hatch a plan to find little Prayer a husband. As their house got stepped on, along with their father, and their mother’s spine was broken by a cat, it’s all they can do. Which would be great, but there’s films to unfortunately star in, bangparties, tuna to be eaten by. Go and read the book to work out what the hell I’m even talking about. Welcome to Lifeanddeathworld

Type of book: ‘Separates those who have a good sense of humour from those who think they do’

The author: Jesse Andrews, American novelist and screenwriter who also wrote ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’

What drew me in was... the stupidly bonkers language. I mean, Munmun.

You should get a copy if...you are concerned about inequality, and think Jesse Andrews should be allowed to eat too.

You shouldn’t read it if...you are middlerich and upwards. The words will be too small.

The thing I liked...it’s hilarious and has socialist ideals. Those two things shouldn’t work so well together, but they do. In other words, it’s the book version of me.

The notsogood thing...Dreamworld isn’t even real.

Best line of novel... ‘“The heaviest burdens in the world are worn on the littlest shoulders, we all know it. The cruelest sufferings, darkest bleakenings, the endless frights and terrors.”’ <3

Worst line of novel... ‘Or maybe it can’t because apparently Prayer can’t work the pedals, because her entire body isn’t as strong as an average quarterscale foot, how is that possible, Prayer can you even do a single pushup.’ Okay, only because it made me laugh hard enough to fart. (Is there a word for that? A lart, maybe?) The biggest people have to shit in the sea, get that image in your head instead. *

The best way to read this book is...several times over.

Rating 5/5

Final thoughts: Buy it. Laugh. Shake your pom poms for the little people. Satire at it’s best!

*For more poo and fart talk, be sure to keep an eye out for my upcoming review on Midas Dekkers’ The Story of Shit. I know you won’t want to miss it.

Munmun was published on 5th July 2018 by Allen & Unwin. Thank you to Jesse Andrews, Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for the ARC.

This one was a strange one for me. I loved the concept; peoples size is determined by their wealth. The poorer people you will find living in cereal boxes in alleys hiding from rats while the wealthiest can be found living in their own private towns eating several fully grown cows for breakfast.
The story follows brother and sister, with their father dead and their mother seriously ill their only option is for the sister to find a rich husband and to 'scale' everyone up. Here ensues a long meandering storyline. Don't get me wrong... I really enjoyed the story, I just didn't know where it was heading. So many things happened that I don't know if it was all necessary.
I enjoyed the feel of the book, instead of a serious dirty alternative world, Munmun had taken on a more comical, humorous tone. However, as a big dystopian fan, I found myself missing the grittier tone.
All in all, this was an enjoyable, vastly different than any dystopian I have previously read before. It would be a great read for anyone looking for a 'lighter' dystopian.

In an alternate reality in a world a lot like our own, each person's physical size is directly proportional to their wealth (the so-called munmun). The poorest of the poor (littlepoor) are the size of rats, and billionaires are the size of skyscrapers and has a several implications for how easy or difficult an individual’s life will be. By equating wealth with body size, Jesse recreates the feeling of being subjected to the cruelty of poverty by making a world where wealth being shown in size is easy to picture and a frightening alternate reality. The way Jesse plays around with word and blunt dialogue is refreshing and I think it will keep a readers’ interest and attention.

I will mention that there are sexual situations and adult content in this book but with that being said it’s also a pretty wacky fantasy world that includes a lot of made up words.

Jesse takes a variety of hard-hitting topics and writes them so wonderfully that he remains sensitive, but also doesn’t pull any punches. The running themes throughout this book focus on people’s fixation on wealth, family and trying to rise above in a world that’s against you. It is a story that allows us to look through the looking glass in the safety of our imagination and its easy to picture our reality being similar. Munmmun also looks into poverty and the book delves into how the legal system treats minorities. For example, when group of middle-rich teens go on a rampage and destroy property, they are "just kids" letting off steam and are given a slap on the wrist in spite of devastating the lives of the littlepoor.

This is a very unusual book, and one of the strangest I have read in a good while.

The book is based in a society stratified by Mun Mun; either the possession or lack of it. Those who have none or very little are very small, and find themselves rats prey as they are smaller than rats. Whilst those that do have money can turn into giants.

Please can up and down scale, and the story follows a brother (and sister) through their rags to riches.

The language and speller are unique to Warner the narrator, and it takes a bit of getting used to. This for me lagged in the middle, the beginning was good and then it steamrolled to an ending I didn’t predict, but there was a lot of things, and really nothing going on the middle.

An engaging idea but a lot of characters are dropped. Unnecessarily, and for me the book was just to long.

This is a novel like no other I have ever read before. The concept is genius and the storytelling style is brilliant.

In another reality, very similar to ours, a person's wealth has a direct effect on their size. The richest of the rich are as tall as skyscrapers while the poor are as small as your average rat. Needless to say when you're that small moving up in the world is going to be difficult. You're in constant danger - someone could stand on you, a cat could attack you, you could be plucked up off the street and used as someone's plaything in their dollhouse or model railway!! Accessing healthcare is nearly impossible as is gaining an education - nothing is built to accommodate you! However brother and sister, Warner and Prayer, are determined to get bigger. They embark on an adventure to marry Prayer off to a middle rich law student so that they can spread his wealth and scale them both, and their mother, up.

The story is told using a first person narrative - Warner. In fact, it is told as if Warner is writing the story, spelling mistakes and all! Some have criticised this idea but I for one thought it was fantastic. It made it so much more realistic too me. If everything had been spelled perfectly and all sentences grammatically correct then I wouldn’t have felt as if Warner himself was telling the story – he his littlepoor after all, so he hasn’t had any formal education.

I also loved the humour in the story. I particularly enjoyed that people called each other Dave, as if there were so many Daves in the world that there was good chance you would be right! I live in an area where there seems to be a lot of Davids, so it would work quite well here!!

The only thing I didn’t like about the story was the ending. Unfortunately, I can’t really say much without spoiling things but I just didn’t understand Warner’s motives and actions. Not sure what I would have preferred – I just feel the story fell flat at the very end.

I loved the premise of this book and was looking forward to reading it but I got quite bogged down in the language and complexity of dreamworld and the characters themselves - at times I felt the author was almost trying too hard. I agree with other reviewers that the comparison with Douglas Adams made me think it would have more humour. I can see this story would work well visually - graphic novel, TV series or film. Hopefully the author will be successful in selling the story to a major producer!

I have read a lot of Jesse Andrews other books and I love this author and this book I one of my favourites the action was actually quite unique and overall it was a fast paced, fun and a unique read so I would highly recommend.