Excellent fictional universe - a horrific place - and a frightening original dystopia.

Charged by the word. That's the central tenet of the book, and of the society in which this series-opener is set. Citizens must pay for every word they utter, even gestures require payment on the copyright. It's possibly the most horrendous dystopia I've come across.

"Every word is Trademarked (TM), Restricted (R), or Copyrighted (C)."

And into this we have to delve to meet our characters. In this society of adverts, discounts, mega-rich and dirt-poor, there is Speth - so poor she has to have a 'public domain haircut' and 'discount' name. Speth is about to hit the age when she must begin to pay for her words. On her Last Day, about to give the speech that will kickstart her entry into the 'adult' world, an act by her close friend incites Speth to not only fail to give her speech but to shun speaking entirely. This is not a situation the authorities are happy with...

Quite a world. I adored the detail, whilst absolutely loathing the mere thought of it:
"Music was never, ever free. If a baby sang, its parents were charged."
"Fault is decided by the court, not the facts."
Great detail on prices, punishments, snippets about the history of this horror.

Speth and her family are so sympathetic, an older sister trying to take the place of their parents (slaving away literally to clear an old family illegal music download), and a younger - thus able to speak freely - brother.

With some great villains (both a Handmaid's Tale 'Aunt Lydia' type and a more traditional overarching baddie), this has all the elements to make a great film, and a great series. I will probably be reading the second title later this summer.

Recommended for the world-building alone! It takes 1984 ("Obedience to the Law is Freedom") a step further. There is a sly reference to it as well.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.Excellent fictional universe - a horrific place - and a frightening original dystopia.

Charged by the word. That's the central tenet of the book, and of the society in which this series-opener is set. Citizens must pay for every word they utter, even gestures require payment on the copyright. It's possibly the most horrendous dystopia I've come across.

"Every word is Trademarked (TM), Restricted (R), or Copyrighted (C)."

And into this we have to delve to meet our characters. In this society of adverts, discounts, mega-rich and dirt-poor, there is Speth - so poor she has to have a 'public domain haircut' and 'discount' name. Speth is about to hit the age when she must begin to pay for her words. On her Last Day, about to give the speech that will kickstart her entry into the 'adult' world, an act by her close friend incites Speth to not only fail to give her speech but to shun speaking entirely. This is not a situation the authorities are happy with...

Quite a world. I adored the detail, whilst absolutely loathing the mere thought of it:
"Music was never, ever free. If a baby sang, its parents were charged."
"Fault is decided by the court, not the facts."
Great detail on prices, punishments, snippets about the history of this horror.

Speth and her family are so sympathetic, an older sister trying to take the place of their parents (slaving away literally to clear an old family illegal music download), and a younger - thus able to speak freely - brother.

With some great villains (both a Handmaid's Tale 'Aunt Lydia' type and a more traditional overarching baddie), this has all the elements to make a great film, and a great series. I will probably be reading the second title later this summer.

Recommended for the world-building alone! It takes 1984 ("Obedience to the Law is Freedom") a step further. There is a sly reference to it as well.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Review is linked below! 4 out of 5 stars - brilliant writing and interestingly unique story from the first page until the very last one.

“Words matter.”

I cannot stop raving about this book. It’s so powerful and significant for our world today, I’m encouraging everyone to pick up a copy and to share their thoughts. This is the kind of book my generation needed and teenagers today should be given to read in schools!

All Rights Reserved has an explosive opening. I was gripped from the first page, and it’s not often a book can do that to me!

Something that I particularly loved, was the fact that when Speth goes silent, she does it as her own impulsive act against the system. Her actions were her own, yet people join her in this silent protest, when really she never intended to start a rebellion and never encourages anyone to follow her example. Her stand was so powerful that as a reader you can’t help but want to join the other silents and stand and cheer for her, (although to do so would defeat the purpose of going silent!)

And there were so many clever aspects to this book, things that I wouldn’t have initially thought of, but that really helped to formulate the society and world that Speth lives in. She mentions early on in the story that her name ‘Speth’, doesn’t sound pleasant, it sounds cheap. But as she explains, it was a public domain name and all her parents could afford at the time. (Though they managed to buy her younger brother a premium name when he was born). The idea of paying for names for your children is harrowing and yet so well thought of!

The claustrophobia that builds throughout the book is almost overwhelming at times. After going silent, my initial thoughts strayed to sign language and gestures as a form of communication. But to find out so quickly that Rights Holders had already thought of this and charged for gestures such as nodding, head shaking, shrugging, etc. It became really frightening to try and figure out how Speth could live and communicate with the world around her when every move she makes could catch her out.

One of the most impactful scenes for me was when Speth reminisced about being a child and the WiFi going down. How her mother would hug her children for as long as she could and her father would tell stories that had no purpose. But they did them because they were free. (After reading that scene, I went and hugged my parents for a long time).

If you enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 you will love this book. If you’ve not read Fahrenheit 451, read this book anyway! It’s a powerful, compelling story that everyone needs to read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was terrifyingly plausible. Set in the future where everything is trademarked and copywritten; words. gestures. objects. materials. Where people are charged for saying, using and doing one girl; Speth inadvertently starts a movement that could change their world.
I began this book thinking it would be along the lines of Hunger Games; an accidental chosen one stands up for what she believes and changes the world. I was wrong.
There was so much to this book. There were so many twist and turns and side storylines that I was hooked from page one.
The only struggle I had was Speth herself, I didn't agree with a lot of her choices but that didn't stop me from understanding them. Katsoulis wrote her in such a real and flawed way. I felt her despair, her panic and her determination. All the side character were brilliant and I would have loved to of seen more of them.
The world building was outstanding, it was so real and as I said terrifyingly plausible. It was so well developed and clearly so well thought out.
It was a great great read!!!

This was a pretty compelling read, with a deeply sinister premise: a world where words and gestures cost money, and where everything is monetised. Katsoulis seemed to be extrapolating a future from our own world's tendency to monetise everything, but it's a bleak picture of the future that he paints as a result.

The point he makes is an important one, about how crucial it is to have the freedom to express your ideas, to object to the way things are. In his world, the poor are quite literally robbed of a voice, with electric shocks to the eyeballs if they speak without the money to do so, and it's a horrifying literalisation of some of what goes on in our own world.

That said, it felt a little bit too didactic at times for my tastes, and sort of laboured the message. Also, while I appreciated the characters' references to a world outside the US, these were only to say that they didn't know anything about it, and I'd really liked to have known what was going on with the rest of the world in this future Katsoulis was presenting. Maybe it's because I'm not from the US, but I'm always more interested in dystopias that acknowledge the international picture.

Finally, there were some fairly shocking character deaths in this book -- one of which I'm still not over. I would maybe have appreciated a trigger warning for suicide at the beginning, because that caught me off-guard a bit and I hadn't yet adjusted to the fairly dark tone of the book, though it wasn't *too* graphic.

(Real rating: 3.5*s. I would like to use my non-monetised words to ask NetGalley to add a half-star option because it's killing me that they don't have one.)

I have had this book on my radar for ages now, so I was incredibly grateful to receive a free ebook via Netgalley.
The premise to me was so interestging and is honestly something I can see happening to our society in a way (deep, I know). It also takes place in a not so distant future so

Dystopian novels are not something I tend to go for these days but I'm glad I took the chance on this book. I really liked it! The start of the book is quite slow but necessary to build the world and I was grateful for it further on into the novel. There were definitely elements that I found too wordy and occasionally skimmed sections too.
I really liked the main character Speth and the Placers, I liked the friendship element and the lack of a romance really added to the story and made it feel less like the Dystopian stories I read 5 years ago.

To me the writing style made the story really easy to follow and get through so this was a quick read for me.
I felt like I didn't really know where the story was going and was shocked a couple of times and to be able to do that is really impressive me for.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to picking up any future books by Gregory Scott Katsoulis including the second book in the Word$ series!
4/5 stars

Me and this book just didn't get along unfortunately, which is a big shame since it'd been on my radar for a while. I found myself bored and waiting for it to be over, and I wasn't rooting for any of the characters.
Look at the description of this book - it sounds amazing! But it felt way too far fetched for me when I was actually reading it. I found myself slightly enjoying it towards the end, but the ending itself ruined that. Someone else might love this book, but I personally struggled with it.
I did like that it was thought provoking, however.
Thank you to HQ Young Adult via Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is such an interesting concept and also a pretty believable dystopia, which is more terrifying than anything.

I did really enjoy it but had a moment when I was talking to my boyfriend about it and couldn't explain quite a lot of what was going on so maybe the world building wasn't as good as it could have been. I'm also confused by Beecher's grandmother: how on earth she got away with it for so long and also why nobody else had ever thought to say no.

Another small issue I had was that the end of the book is incredibly heavy handed, felt a little preachy and lacks in any form of subtlety. It's also a huge diversion in character that didn't make much sense to me.

I really liked Speth, I thought her determination was brilliant, especially in the face of some horrific challenges (although I think one of them especially would have resulted in an involuntary response) and I love that she was just trying to protest for herself and ended up leading this huge movement. Although I was not a fan of her using Henri.

Silas Rog is a brilliant, completely believable villain too. I enjoyed learning more about him and his plans to take over the world.

To be honest, I liked most of the characters, they were all interesting and well written.

My final issue is that the end of the book felt like a standalone and I believe #2 is due out later this year. I'll probably read it as this one was so interesting but a bit more of a cliffhanger would have been useful.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. Thankyou to Netgalley and HQ for giving me the opportunity to read this book! My review is still honest.

Wow. What an intensely thought provoking and current novel! I'm so impressed by the thought that has gone into this book. It's a YA novel, but explores so much about capitalism and the nature of copyright and branding.
All Rights Reserved creates a world in which people are fitted with a Cuff at the age of 15 that monitors the words they speak and the gestures they make, and charges them for it, as words and gestures are now copyrighted and owned. The poor majority have to restrict their words and affections towards loved ones, while the rich Rights Holders can own slaves and Indenture people if they go into debt (very easy with language itself being so expensive!). Speth, our main character, turns 15 and instead decides to stay silent-she will not give the Rights Holders anything, and starts a chain of events that are very, very satisfying.
This book was so action packed! The pacing was extremely well done, the tension was riveting and danger never seemed far away. I could never predict what would happen next, with each new ridiculous copyright shocking and infuriating me more than the last. Speth's parents are made slaves because their ancestors made an illegal download-how absolutely ridiculous! It's scary because it relates so much to now and what we live in. We're nowhere near this level, but things are progressing in that direction. Things that come to mind immediately are the frequent battles over whether songs are copying another because of similar melodies, band names having to be changed because someone else 'owns' those words, drug companies having a patent on specific formulas of medicine and YouTube videos being taken down for using snippets of songs. This book challenges the idea of intellectual ownership and the world we live in.
I do have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with the characters. I didn't have a huge amount of emotion for any character, Speth was hard to relate to because of her silence. I also disagreed with some of her actions over the course of the book and I don't think they were made out to be that bad, despite the hurt they caused. Speth's family and friends were far more interesting to me-Kel and Henri are great (I'm not a huge fan of Margot) and I think Saretha has a very interesting story to tell. I'd also like to see more of the other Silents. The characters were weaker than the plot for me, but I don't think the focus is meant to be on them anyway-this is more about the power of words and how they shape our identity.
I am very intrigued by the idea of the sequel-after such an explosive ending, this story could go in so many different directions and I can't wait to see where the author chooses to go. A 4 star book-brilliant and thoughtful, but with a few minor weaknesses that did not disrupt my enjoyment.

Of all the dystopian novels I have read, and boy oh boy have there been a lot, this is one of my all-time favourites. This is one of those books that seeps into your life as you’re reading it. I’m not exaggerating in any way when I say that I had to take little breaks from reading this to talk to my husband, just to remind myself that I could talk without fear of going into debt. That’s just how immersed I was in this.

In a book where your main character literally says nothing nor outwardly communicates it would be easy to make her completely unrelatable to the reader. However Speth’s voice in her internal monologue is so strong that I couldn’t help but relate to her. In a way, I would argue she develops more than characters who use dialogue as everything the reader learns about the character they have to either learn directly from her or infer from context. What I most appreciated about Speth’s character is nothing ever felt forced for her, her decision to not speak comes quite early on in the book, but it is still set up so that it makes sense for her character. Her subsequent actions, though they still have that unlikelihood of any fictional story, nevertheless make sense and her reactions to them are clear, despite the lack of outward communication. This felt a surprisingly believable story for what could have just been a heavy concept book.

I know some people have found the worldbuilding to be a little lacking, I personally don’t recall feeling that way while reading, perhaps because, instead of dealing in large swathes of information, the author opts to put in small details which make the world feel fleshed out. One example of this which struck me was people searching the word market (sort of like the stock market) for cheap words that sound similar to others, to allow them to converse for a lower fee. I can see how some of the larger concepts, such as sponsorship of individuals, weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been, but this still felt like a complete world to me.

Because so much of this book is internalised, there aren’t too many side characters to talk about. I thought that the relationship between Speth and her siblings was well done, again the way they react to certain events feels very true to this specific kind of strange family dynamic. I’ll be interested to see if the side characters get more of a look-in in the later book(s) in the series as I think that would be an interesting perspective to explore.

This is a strong conceptual novel that still manages to pull off some very tricky character based plot. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a different kind of dystopian novel, one that isn’t focussed on violence or combat (not that there’s anything wrong with those books) but instead explores consumerism and communication. Perhaps afterwards you will, as I did, find yourself measuring how many words you use and trying to guess just how in debt you would be in this world? Definitely not a world this blabbermouth would be able to inhabit safely!

My rating: 5/5 stars
I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am so grateful to NetGalley and the Publishers, HQ Young Adult, for giving me a copy of All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis.

There is something eerily creepy about the themes in this book, I suppose it's something that's on par with AI Robots taking over the world, it's something that seems far fetched but there is always that tiny voice at the back of your head.

Picture this, a future where every word and gesture is copyrighted, patented or trademarked. Where if you can't afford the words you've spoken then you will feel a electric shock to the eyes as punishment. Speth Jime - has just turned fifteen and this means she has to start paying for her words, for every scream, for every gesture of affection. The threat of falling into debt is high, and something that no one comes back from.

One of the scariest moments for me as a reader was the fact that most people don't own books, this is because you need a special licence to store books within your home and the cost is high. The second scariest moment is after Speth has stopped speaking and she realises she can't scream - not even to save herself.

Throughout the book, it shows you the costs of certain words and the cost of a nod or a shrug. Such as saying "It's Beautiful" would have cost you $10.98. This is something that I find incredibly engaging as a reader because it made me feel like I was there with them, like I was having to count words with them, make sure I could afford what I needed to say.

There are subplots going on throughout this book that keeps the fast pace going, where you wonder can everyone be trusted, and what are some people willing to ignore just to save their own skin.

Along with the descriptions of the city and even the smell of their home, Gregory Scott Katsoulis has done an amazing job in pushing you headfirst into a terrifying dystopian world where every little word, shrug, or pat to the shoulder can be enough to put you in the red.

An entertaining and interesting read, with a great message about the influence of the media set in a dystopian future. For me the best aspect of this book was the plot and message but I did also enjoy the characters and I though the writing was very good and kept me engaged.
An excellent book, that I’d highly recommend and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

An interesting and well written imagining of a future in a city under a dome where at age 15 each person begins to be monitored and have to pay for each and every word they speak. Everything is copyrighted, money is made from being sponsored and advertising specific products and brands which are allocated on a person's Last Day (of childhood's freedom and unrestricted speech). On that day a cuff is attached which monitors speech and registers charges. Infringement, such as using a word that you can't afford to pay for, results in shocks being delivered by implants in the eyes. Historical debt is often used as another means of charging people and many parents have been taken by a (debt) Collection agency and used as slave labour or indentured servants......which also leaves whole areas populated by children and very yoing adults who are moulded and manipulated into being perfectly controlled citizens/consumers. Until Speth, who on her big day refuses to make her speech accepting and promoting her newly assigned brands and unintentionally sets in motion a trend of going Silent.....spurring a backlash from the lawyers who essentially have society in the palm of their hands. I enjoyed the story, felt I engaged with the main characters and think there is much thought provoking material here to recommend the novel to teen/YA readers.

An entertaining read, very contemporary.
Even if set in a dystopian future it’s easy to imagine how our current society pushed to the extreme, could end up looking somewhat like the reality described by Katsoulis.
I like the characters, I like the way Speth unwillingly gets to be the hero and the dilemmas that she has to face over and over again.
At a deeper level, I appreciate the attempt of the author to warn teenagers about aspects of our current society that could lead to a loss of freedom if left unchallenged.
An excellent book, that I’d highly recommend. My only reason for giving All Rights Reserved 4* is that I think Speth is not quite edgy enough. We spend the entire novel in her head and when compared with other first-person YA heroines out there, I feel that Speth lacks of that certain something, perhaps that’s just about to come out in book too.
Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Thanks you Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for this ARC

I'm so annoyed that the sequel isn't out until August - I need it now! This was a fantastic read about a scary dystopian society in which everything is copyrighted: once someone turns fifteen, they are affixed with a cuff that charges them for every word they use and every gesture they make, the value of which change like stocks. Even names must be bought. On the day that Speth Jime turns fifteen and is due to read the contract that legally must be her first paid words, she instead chooses to remain silent and chaos ensues. This was such a great book that left me with a ton of questions for the sequel and I can't wait for it! I was really impressed by Katsoulis's world-building and it really made me think about how the future, and how this isn't such a crazy possibility.