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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It would not be responsible to recommend this book to a young person these days because it has a heavily consistent through line of fatphobia and showcases extremely negative stereotypes about fat people. Any useful ideas explored in this book can no doubt be found in more modern books that don’t share the weird biases that this author clearly had.
Which is ironic because Sleator was a gay man and, as such, reading it through that lens shows more depth and nuance than the surface text would otherwise suggest. But other than for research purposes, this book offers very little value to modern readers. (I also just personally annoyed at how wasted the interesting setting was in favor of a bunch of psychological melodrama.)
Which is ironic because Sleator was a gay man and, as such, reading it through that lens shows more depth and nuance than the surface text would otherwise suggest. But other than for research purposes, this book offers very little value to modern readers. (I also just personally annoyed at how wasted the interesting setting was in favor of a bunch of psychological melodrama.)
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I felt kind of lukewarm about the book as a whole, but the last page was amazing.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A mystery book choice from a local book store. An interesting take on a dystopia child experiment with themes of addiction, conditioning, and the depths people will go to for what they want.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Dang! Where was this book when I was younger??!? For being a few decades old, it really hasn't aged much! This psychological teen read throws five 16 year old orphans into a weird uninviting alien environment filled only with stairs. None of them know why they are there or how to escape. They wander around and find a weird machine that will give them food, only when they figure out how to meet it's weird demands. It's the 5 of them against this weird environment, what will happen if they stop working together? Why are they there? What is the point? It is very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, just maybe a little more futuristic. A weird, interesting, and compelling read. I dig it.
Probably the sort of book I would have thought was great in middle school. As an adult, the notion of "social experiments" just gets on my nerves.