Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: All Rights Reserved
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://gregorykatsoulis.com/
CITY: Cambridge
STATE: MA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, photographer, composer, and cartoonist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Gregory Scott Katsoulis is a writer, photographer, composer, and cartoonist. His debut novel, All Rights Reserved, published in 2017, is a chilling dystopian thriller for young adults. Fifteen-year-old Latina Speth Jime has come of age and will soon give her Last Day speech, the last time she will be able to speak for free. From now on she will be an adult who will wear a special monitor on her wrist that will charge her money for every word she speaks and every means of communication she makes, such as a shrug or nod. There is no such thing as free speech, and every word has been copyrighted, trademarked, or restricted. Poor people like Speth often find themselves in terrible debt. She is about to accept that this is way the world works, until her boyfriend Beecher commits suicide in front of her rather than face his family’s crippling debt.
Speth makes a radical decision, instead of giving her speech, she will become silent and say nothing ever again. This creates a media frenzy and invigorates the populace, many of whom follow her lead and remain silent. The government and the huge corporations that make billions of dollars from copyrighted words are not pleased. They threaten the lives of her friends, siblings, and family, leading Speth to question whether she’s doing the right thing.
“Katsoulis finds intriguing new ideas to explore in the dystopian genre,” noted Booklist writer Snow Wildsmith, who added that while the strange career Speth enters throws off the pace of the novel, the legalese of the world’s policy is convincing and the unique characters are well described. Writing in Publishers Weekly, a reviewer said that while the premise is intense, it was stretched to the breaking point, and the dystopian future is somewhat formulaic, however, “it’s still a provocative setup.”
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews wrote that the readers will identify with Speth’s underdog status against government and legal powers, but that the complex rules of this world can become bogged down. Nevertheless, fast-paced action sequences offer thrills, and the book overall is “A fresh and detailed dystopian tale that will capture and make demands upon the attention of its readers, as the genre should.” In School Library Journal, Sharon Rawlins declared: “Between the clever premise and the protagonist’s stand against a repressive society, Katsoulis’s work is timely and will appeal to fans of Dan Wells’s Bluescreen.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2017, Snow Wildsmith, review of All Rights Reserved, p. 71.
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2017, review of All Rights Reserved.
School Library Journal, July, 2017, Sharon Rawlins, review of All Rights Reserved, p. 90.
ONLINE
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (May 1, 2018), review of All Rights Reserved.
About
Gregory Scott Katsoulis is a writer, photographer, composer, lapsed cartoonist and, generally ridiculous.
4/22/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1524441038096 1/3
Print Marked Items
All Rights Reserved
Snow Wildsmith
Booklist.
113.22 (Aug. 1, 2017): p71.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
All Rights Reserved. By Gregory Scott Katsoulis. Aug. 2017.400p. HarlequinTeen, $18.99
(9780373212446). Gr. 7-10.
Speth is about to deliver her Last Day speech, signifying her becoming a paying adult, who's charged for
every word she speaks and for most of her gestures and sounds. But when a friend commits suicide in front
of her to escape his family's debt, Speth fights back by saying nothing at all. Even she is surprised, however,
when her rebellion begins to inspire others ... and to disturb the government. In his debut novel, Katsoulis
finds intriguing new ideas to explore in the dystopian genre. Speth is a reluctant heroine and very worried
when her defiance begins to adversely affect those around her. The world in which she lives is convincingly
built and even the legalese elements of the story don't bog it down too much. Speth's induction into a
strange career field does throw off the pace, but the unique characters with whom she interacts make up for
that slowdown. By the end of this first book, readers will be thinking about every word they speak,
knowing, as Speth does, that "words matter."--Snow Wildsmith
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Wildsmith, Snow. "All Rights Reserved." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2017, p. 71. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A501718941/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8d979529.
Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A501718941
4/22/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1524441038096 2/3
Katsoulis, Gregory Scott: ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Katsoulis, Gregory Scott ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Harlequin Teen (Children's Fiction) $18.99 8, 29
ISBN: 978-0-373-21244-6
A nightmarish future is imagined in this science-fiction offering from a debut author. A stratified quagmire
has evolved since the ideals of free speech began to be subsumed by a legal stranglehold requiring that each
person be fitted with an electronic arm cuff that literally charges them for each word they speak. As the
novel opens, impoverished Speth Jime is in preparation for her 15th birthday celebration, when she must
sign the Terms of Service and give a speech that marks her induction into this heavily litigated system. Then
the unexpected actions of a friend spur her to impulsively decide to cease speaking, setting off a course of
events marked by both hope and tragedy. Of Latino descent (Jimenez was shortened to Jime in a previous
generation), Speth is a reluctant and vulnerable hero. Readers will easily identify with her underdog
struggle against the powers that be, even as they may become bogged down at times with the dizzying
complexities of the repressive society in which she lives. Fast-paced action sequences provide a welcome
balance to her anxious, often self-doubting inner monologues, and the flashes of a freer history that she
glimpses throughout are effectively chilling. A fresh and detailed dystopian tale that will capture and make
demands upon the attention of its readers, as the genre should, with a conclusion that sets readers up for the
sequel. (Science fiction. 13-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Katsoulis, Gregory Scott: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491934242/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f2e0f329.
Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491934242
4/22/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1524441038096 3/3
Katsoulis, Gregory Scott. All Rights
Reserved
Sharon Rawlins
School Library Journal.
63.7 (July 2017): p90.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
KATSOULIS, Gregory Scott. All Rights Reserved. 400p. (Word$: Bk. 1). Harlequin Teen. Aug. 2017. Tr
$18.99. ISBN 9780373212446.
Gr 8 Up--In this inventive dystopian sci-fi debut, when people turn 15, they must begin paying for the
words they speak or write and for the gestures they use to communicate. Every word is trademarked,
restricted, or copyrighted, and some words cost more than others, leading many to go into debt. Those 15 or
older must wear an irremovable Cuff that records everything they say and do and pays the Rights Holders.
Speth is about to give her 15th birthday speech as a rite of passage when her boyfriend commits suicide in
front of her rather than pay off his family's huge debt. This compels the teen to rebel against society's rules
by becoming silent, which means no money for the corporation that's making billions from people's speech.
Her seditious act incites a media frenzy and sparks a movement called the Silents. It threatens to disrupt the
system, but the cost for Speth and her siblings Saretha and Sam is very high. Speth is a sympathetic
character for whom readers will root, but her experiences are often unrelentingly grim. Since she narrates
the book and doesn't speak aloud to others, readers may feel distanced from the other characters. The ending
is a bit anticlimactic given the exciting events that preceded it. VERDICT Between the clever premise and
the protagonist's stand against a repressive society, Katsoulis's work is timely and will appeal to fans of Dan
Wells's Bluescreen, M.T. Anderson's Feed, Cecelia Ahern's Flawed, or Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies." Purchase
where sci-fi and dystopian tales are popular.--Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Rawlins, Sharon. "Katsoulis, Gregory Scott. All Rights Reserved." School Library Journal, July 2017, p.
90. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497611167/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8857cfc3. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497611167
All Rights Reserved
Gregory Scott Katsoulis. Harlequin Teen, $18.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-373-21244-6
In this intense if somewhat formulaic dystopian debut novel, a young woman uses silence to protest a culture in which free speech has been eradicated and every word, gesture, and method of communication has been patented, copyrighted, or trademarked. Upon turning 15, Speth Jime is supposed to read a speech that will bind her to a corporate sponsor, after which she’ll be financially liable for anything she says or does. (Just saying “It’s beautiful” costs Speth’s older sister more than $10.) Instead, she refuses to speak, accidentally setting off a cultural firestorm and a low-level rebellion among her peers. Now excluded from almost everything society has to offer, she takes a secret job as a nocturnal product Placer, which provides her with access to the city’s most secure and exclusive locations and gives her a chance to strike back at the lawyers who maintain a stranglehold on communication. Although Katsoulis pushes his premise to the breaking point with its focus on how everything from common words to a simple shrug or kiss can be controlled and monetized, it’s still a provocative setup. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lisa Rodgers, JABberwocky Literary. (Aug.)