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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If breaking into dance every time you saw a flashing light was essential to your survival, would you do it continuously for the rest of your life?
I once had a discussion with someone about the possibility of sentience in plants and in machines. I insisted that plants are slaves to their DNA and could do no more than what was programmed into them, and computers were the same, while my fellow conversationalist held onto a very different opinion. He explained to me that, in a way, humans are also 'programmed' by society, their genetics, and their family to to behave in a certain way, even though we have some margin of individual thought. I didn't want to agree with him for the same reason that people don't agree with me when I share with them my atheist view that nothing happens after death. It's a little sad to think that we have no choice in how we're made, isn't it?
House of Stairs takes the concept of human "programming" and drops it in a dystopian setting with a totalitarian government. Throughout the course of the book, these five teens are conditioned to depend on this strange machine for their survival, but when it gets more and more difficult to entice it into giving them food, they realize what the machine really wants from them - for them to tear each other apart. Things escalate within the group, with one part of it choosing to comply and one choosing to rebel, until we lead up to the expected Reveal at the end.
This book explores themes similiar to those from The Lord of the Flies: the lengths people will go to to survive, and how people can either band together or turn against each other in difficult times. It explores the intricacies of instinctive human respones and shows us how we can be adapt or be conditioned to live a certain way.
Sleator also brings us Lola (no last name), a tough and independent girl who's not beautiful and is no one's love interest, but thinks for herself and is strong enough to follow through with tough decisions. Gotta love that. Even her friend, Peter, who starts out as meek and subservient, slowly starts to grow a spine towards the end - he gets more character development in less than 166 pages than some characters get in entire trilogies!
This book is marketed towards children, but personally I find that some of the violence and themes in it would be too mature for children to comprehend. I'd recommend it to teens and adults, especially those with short attention spans.
There's a little cussing in this book, but nothing very severe, so it didn't bother me very much.
William Sleator has always written innovative and unusual books with interesting premises, and I'm glad to say that this is no exception.
Reading this as a kid made me think about it for a while. I thought this was the same book as House of Leaves for years.
i never knew that the song dance monkey was about this book
A quick but emotionally difficult read. Written 40 years ago yet holds up extremely well. Recommended.
This book is quite creepy and still relevant, despite its publication date. It may not be as exciting as more recent dystopian literature, however it certainly makes one think.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am insanely addicted attracted to stories about "the group in peril", when people are thrust into an alien setting absent of any social rules and obligations. Under such circumstances, it usually doesn't take long for humans to throw off the shackles of civilized conduct and resort to a more brutal "survival of the fittest" approach. That’s not just the pessimist in me coming out, but the realist.
What we become in extremis is both fascinating and frightening in the heroic heights we reach and the craven depths we sink to, and how quickly we revert to our most primal and baser urges. One hundred thousand years of evolution gone in the blink of an eye. William Golding shows us this in [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165637417s/7624.jpg|2766512], as does Scott Smith in [b:The Ruins|21726|The Ruins|Scott B. Smith|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41W862T6SFL._SL75_.jpg|2453000], Jose Saramago in [b:Blindness|2526|Blindness|José Saramago|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161054077s/2526.jpg|3213039] and Stephen King in his novella [b:The Mist|813214|The Mist|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255841849s/813214.jpg|59181]. These books teach us that there are even worse fates than losing your life – it's losing your humanity.
In House of Stairs, William Sleator proves just how quickly humans can be stripped of their humanity. First published in 1974, I imagine Sleator was influenced at least in part, by some of the more famous psych experiments of the first half of the 20th century including the Little Albert Experiment and the Milgram Obedience Experiment. Just a few years prior to its publication there was also the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment – a study designed to ostensibly observe the effects of becoming either a prisoner or prison guard. Twenty-four students were selected out of 75 to play the prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Roles were assigned randomly. This “experiment” degenerated so rapidly into violence and the dehumanization of its subjects that it had to be stopped after only six days. Good times.
The five 16-year-old protagonists here are subjected to much the same mindfuck (pardon my French), enclosed in a never-ending space of stairs – there are no walls, no floors, no doors, no ceiling, just stairs, going up, going down. That’s the set-up. What follows is pretty tame by today’s standards, and in my books does not hold a candle to [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165637417s/7624.jpg|2766512]; however, it still makes for pure, unadulterated compulsive reading. It doesn’t surprise me that in 2000, the American Library Association, with teen participation, chose it as one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of the last 50 years. Recommended!!
What we become in extremis is both fascinating and frightening in the heroic heights we reach and the craven depths we sink to, and how quickly we revert to our most primal and baser urges. One hundred thousand years of evolution gone in the blink of an eye. William Golding shows us this in [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165637417s/7624.jpg|2766512], as does Scott Smith in [b:The Ruins|21726|The Ruins|Scott B. Smith|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41W862T6SFL._SL75_.jpg|2453000], Jose Saramago in [b:Blindness|2526|Blindness|José Saramago|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161054077s/2526.jpg|3213039] and Stephen King in his novella [b:The Mist|813214|The Mist|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255841849s/813214.jpg|59181]. These books teach us that there are even worse fates than losing your life – it's losing your humanity.
In House of Stairs, William Sleator proves just how quickly humans can be stripped of their humanity. First published in 1974, I imagine Sleator was influenced at least in part, by some of the more famous psych experiments of the first half of the 20th century including the Little Albert Experiment and the Milgram Obedience Experiment. Just a few years prior to its publication there was also the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment – a study designed to ostensibly observe the effects of becoming either a prisoner or prison guard. Twenty-four students were selected out of 75 to play the prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Roles were assigned randomly. This “experiment” degenerated so rapidly into violence and the dehumanization of its subjects that it had to be stopped after only six days. Good times.
The five 16-year-old protagonists here are subjected to much the same mindfuck (pardon my French), enclosed in a never-ending space of stairs – there are no walls, no floors, no doors, no ceiling, just stairs, going up, going down. That’s the set-up. What follows is pretty tame by today’s standards, and in my books does not hold a candle to [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165637417s/7624.jpg|2766512]; however, it still makes for pure, unadulterated compulsive reading. It doesn’t surprise me that in 2000, the American Library Association, with teen participation, chose it as one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of the last 50 years. Recommended!!
What would you do if you woke up in a seemingly never-ending space full of stairs?
I don't know about you, but I would freak out. And House of Stairs tells the story of five teenagers in this situation freaking out.
Do we know why they are trapped in a literal house of stairs? No. Do we know why these specific orphans were picked? Nope. Does it seem they will likely die since there are no places of sustenance or any kind of exit? Yep.
Lola, Peter, Oliver, Abigail, and Blossom could not be more different. I hated them all (especially Blossom) and I also loved them all (especially precious Peter), and I admired their contrasting personalities, responses under pressure, and how they changed with prolonged hardship. Super interesting and chill-inducing, because it makes you wonder who you would be if you were pushed to that kind of limit.
The story is less about the actual plot and more about the psychology behind it, which was different than what I usually read and proved to be entertaining. I do wish we were given more closure and explanations, but the end left me with so many chills that I decided it was okay.
While its age shines through at parts, it's short, it's quick, it's weird, it spreads goosebumps, and it sticks. Wouldn't have thought, but it's worth the read.
Rated 3.9/5 for eloquent brevity, solid psychology built into engaging characters, and a timeless air about it that's just plain creepy
I don't know about you, but I would freak out. And House of Stairs tells the story of five teenagers in this situation freaking out.
Do we know why they are trapped in a literal house of stairs? No. Do we know why these specific orphans were picked? Nope. Does it seem they will likely die since there are no places of sustenance or any kind of exit? Yep.
Lola, Peter, Oliver, Abigail, and Blossom could not be more different. I hated them all (especially Blossom) and I also loved them all (especially precious Peter), and I admired their contrasting personalities, responses under pressure, and how they changed with prolonged hardship. Super interesting and chill-inducing, because it makes you wonder who you would be if you were pushed to that kind of limit.
The story is less about the actual plot and more about the psychology behind it, which was different than what I usually read and proved to be entertaining. I do wish we were given more closure and explanations, but the end left me with so many chills that I decided it was okay.
While its age shines through at parts, it's short, it's quick, it's weird, it spreads goosebumps, and it sticks. Wouldn't have thought, but it's worth the read.
Rated 3.9/5 for eloquent brevity, solid psychology built into engaging characters, and a timeless air about it that's just plain creepy