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novabird 's review for:
The Panopticon
by Jenni Fagan
At times I wonder, what the criterion are for labeling a book as, ‘Young Adult,’ does it have to contain contemporary youth content? “The Panopticon,” covers a plentitude of ‘youth content issues,’ from: gender identity and sexuality, pedophilia, compulsive masturbation, and bestiality, to self-harm of cutting, to violence from dysfunctional families to young offender violence, to rampant drug use and rabid expletives. But for what purpose is this type of content used?
In this case, the main character Anais is a repeat, replete offender whose mental health is questionable after multiple Adverse Childhood Events. If this was the intention of all the horrific content to expose the reality for ‘children in care,’ then it works.
However, it is up to the reader to try to define Anais’ schizophrenic type episodes from her paranoid internal dialogue. I am not sure the resolution of her mental health would be something that the young adult reader would ‘get,’ and that they would just interpret it as an ‘easy out.’ No, I am not disparaging the intellect of youth, I am questioning whether or not youth would have been exposed to the nurture versus nature debate that the resolution brings up. The ending affirms the idea of
As a result, the nightmarish content of the novel is overdone for the purposes of outlining the mental health issues, a narrower focus of abuse atrocities would have given the plot more solidity. Unfortunately, for me this exposé of youth issues was gratuitous, because many of the examples were embodied in tertiary characters and thus the motivation for their behaviour is not examined. What I also strongly disliked was the rampant use of ‘kamikaze cocktail,’ drugs presented in a positive light as a way of ‘dealing with,’ life and modeled by social workers. I think is highly questionable. There absolutely was no message of sobriety.
I almost gave this a 1 but for it making me think about 'situational environments,'I find that this book is simply a 2 for okay.
In this case, the main character Anais is a repeat, replete offender whose mental health is questionable after multiple Adverse Childhood Events. If this was the intention of all the horrific content to expose the reality for ‘children in care,’ then it works.
However, it is up to the reader to try to define Anais’ schizophrenic type episodes from her paranoid internal dialogue. I am not sure the resolution of her mental health would be something that the young adult reader would ‘get,’ and that they would just interpret it as an ‘easy out.’ No, I am not disparaging the intellect of youth, I am questioning whether or not youth would have been exposed to the nurture versus nature debate that the resolution brings up. The ending affirms the idea of
Spoiler
change or escape from a situational environment resolves Anais mental health concernsAs a result, the nightmarish content of the novel is overdone for the purposes of outlining the mental health issues, a narrower focus of abuse atrocities would have given the plot more solidity. Unfortunately, for me this exposé of youth issues was gratuitous, because many of the examples were embodied in tertiary characters and thus the motivation for their behaviour is not examined. What I also strongly disliked was the rampant use of ‘kamikaze cocktail,’ drugs presented in a positive light as a way of ‘dealing with,’ life and modeled by social workers. I think is highly questionable. There absolutely was no message of sobriety.
I almost gave this a 1 but for it making me think about 'situational environments,'I find that this book is simply a 2 for okay.