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The Grounding of Group 6
Arriving at what they believe is an exclusive boarding school, five sixteen-year-olds are unaware that they have been sent there to be exterminated and that their teacher is a murderer for hire.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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July 13, 2012
YA was hardcore in 1983, yo. I bought my original copy of The Grounding of Group Six at Barnes and Noble in Boston when I was 10 – the huge one on Boylston that looked like a half-melted White House, and I’m not going to lie to you: I bought it because of the cover.
In fact, before I even get into the book itself, I’m going to rhapsodize about the cover. THE COVER. It’s one of those shady, “serious” YA covers from the 80s, and everyone in the group shot looks like they would CUT YOU. Which is totally misleading, because they’re all just total dorky sweethearts, and also “rich kids,” which is apparently shorthand for a bewildering lack of basic life skills, so they’re kind of adorably helpless and then they learn to camp out because, and this can’t really count as a spoiler since the basic premise of the book is plastered all over the jacket and the back cover, although it would have been fucking mindblowing going into it blind: Front cover – “Parent’s don’t kill their kids for just one reason. They’re afraid to get caught.” Back cover – “Nat had been hired by the Coldbrook Country School to make sure Group 6 never came out of the woods alive. And their own parents were paying the bill.”
So, you’ve got that tag line, and then each kid looks like a sullen little bitch, so you kind of WANT their parents to kill them: Marigold looks like you’ve already bored her into a coma, Ludi looks like you smell incredibly bad, I mean, she has to breathe through her mouth just to even look at you, and Sarah has her “Knickerbocker, please,” face on; she’s clearly thinking about punching you in the neck. And the boys! None of them look like how I pictured them in the book (Ludi, too, is way tougher looking on the cover than in my mind’s eye) and poor Sully looks like he’s tweaking. Of the lot of them, Nat’s face is the most passive, the least defined. He’s sort of imaginary compared to the others, like, if an Elf escaped a Dungeonmaster’s Guide and got lost in a romance novel cover before he crept into the YA section?
Anyway, despite/because how misleading it is, the cover is awesome, for reals: just look at it! Marigold, vaguely Cher-like, and obviously comfortable with her teenage sexuality, Coke hunkered down and relaxed, with his hand in a casual yet non-sexual curl around his friend’s leg, his friend who is totally organized and competent and a girl, and Nat… Nat looks like an ad for the Bon Jovi Hairclub for Men, sporting this stylin’ mullet (yet clean shaven, even though in the book he has a blond goatee OMG) and also? He’s wearing supenders and an unbuttoned shirt over a smooth, naked chest (clearly something he picked up in the romance section). So you already know what you’re getting into, babies. That’s right: HEDONISM.
Oh, did you think it was a coincidence that the title practically says “group sex?” Because it’s totally not. I mean, group sex doesn’t happen in the actual book, but it’s easy to imagine that it happens at the end when they all quit school to move in together! SO IMPLIED. Also, teachers fucking their students, but it so totally doesn’t count because I don’t think Nat fucks Ludi until the book technically ends, and she’s probably 17 by then, maybe? Plus, he’s only 22 and fresh from college, so yeah, older, but not 42, and not Buffy/Angel old.
But maybe you’re totally fine with the age thing, and you’re hung up on the fact that he, you know, was hired to ASSASSINATE her? and that six weeks living rough in mortal peril manufactured some kind of Stockholm Syndrome Teen Romance? Well, sheesh, come on, he wasn’t actually her killer, so it’s not like he menaced her into bed with him. She actually has an entire school full of boys her own age and in her group to hook up with, so. She makes her decision with clear eyes! Which you can totally do if you’re an old soul and also a little psychic and 16 years old and abandoned/murdered by your rich parents! ::ahem::
But the whole thing where he was hired to murder them? Well, he’s a gambler, but a doof and a sweetheart and he was just desperate, right? And he didn’t really think he was being paid to actually kill them, because he’s so simplehearted it doesn’t even occur to him that it’s not just some elaborate scared straight scheme? And once he realizes that he was, in fact, supposed to actually murder them and also, THIS JUST IN, be murdered in turn, he comes clean and tells them that their parents put them on a hitlist and then he turns them into this team of scrappy survivalists in an amazingly non-creepy way (kind of like Red Dawn, but with way less communist hysteria). He’s just a big goofy golden labrador of a man, who likes to be outside, and not to be kneecapped by the bookie he owes dough to.
It’s just, like, extreme Outward Bound.
To return to the theme so elegantly communicated by the cover, this book is basically full of attempted child murder from the get go. Also, it was a lot cheaper to kill people in 1983. I mean, rich people paid the actual administrators of the school who knows how much to put Xs in their kid’s eyes, but DollarTimes.com told me that the 3K the school would have paid Nat (instead they wisely gave him 1500 and promised to send the rest later) would only be like $6,995.07 in 2012. That’s not even 1400 bucks a head! Nat: assassinatin’ rich kids on the cheap since 1983! Group discounts, woo! (Get it? )
Oh, and I kind of love the guy Nat owes money to: Arn-The-Barn Emfatico. His uncle’s a gangster, and so he’s obliged to collect the cash, even though he likes Nat and he himself isn’t a huge fan of the old ultraviolence. He’s a simple guy. He likes nature and Pepsi and Milky Ways. He has a girlfriend who loves motels: “they kind of turned her on.”
The Grounding of Group Six is amazing for so many reasons: the kids drink and fuck and bond, the adults curse and drink and plot to kill them, and somehow, although the kids go through some crazy deep trauma, they come out remarkably well-adjusted and quite likely to become just the sort of pleasant, relaxed, and totally self-actualized people who become casual billionaires, because they all got to have super cathartic moments that helped them get over their respective mommy and daddy issues. At 10, my takeaway from this book was the steadfast belief that no matter how horrifying my family, I could make it through.
To recap:
1) Villainous parents/authority figures!
2) Healthy teen sexuality with a focus on birth control!
3) One girl is psychic for no apparent reason without any real bearing on the plot!
4) Like everything 80s, it features a training montage!
Seriously, why are you not reading this book right now? It’s so totally great. What I’m saying here is, you should read it. You should read it SO HARD.
Note: The current edition of this book sold on Amazon, both in print and for Kindle, appears to have been released by the author after getting the rights back from his publisher. This means instead of the magnificent cover to which fully half of this post is in praise of, you’ll instead get something he may or may not have created himself in Microsoft Paint. The good news, though, is that almost the entire sale price of any copy sold will go to pay author’s mortgage — purchase it with pride!
In fact, before I even get into the book itself, I’m going to rhapsodize about the cover. THE COVER. It’s one of those shady, “serious” YA covers from the 80s, and everyone in the group shot looks like they would CUT YOU. Which is totally misleading, because they’re all just total dorky sweethearts, and also “rich kids,” which is apparently shorthand for a bewildering lack of basic life skills, so they’re kind of adorably helpless and then they learn to camp out because, and this can’t really count as a spoiler since the basic premise of the book is plastered all over the jacket and the back cover, although it would have been fucking mindblowing going into it blind: Front cover – “Parent’s don’t kill their kids for just one reason. They’re afraid to get caught.” Back cover – “Nat had been hired by the Coldbrook Country School to make sure Group 6 never came out of the woods alive. And their own parents were paying the bill.”
So, you’ve got that tag line, and then each kid looks like a sullen little bitch, so you kind of WANT their parents to kill them: Marigold looks like you’ve already bored her into a coma, Ludi looks like you smell incredibly bad, I mean, she has to breathe through her mouth just to even look at you, and Sarah has her “Knickerbocker, please,” face on; she’s clearly thinking about punching you in the neck. And the boys! None of them look like how I pictured them in the book (Ludi, too, is way tougher looking on the cover than in my mind’s eye) and poor Sully looks like he’s tweaking. Of the lot of them, Nat’s face is the most passive, the least defined. He’s sort of imaginary compared to the others, like, if an Elf escaped a Dungeonmaster’s Guide and got lost in a romance novel cover before he crept into the YA section?
Anyway, despite/because how misleading it is, the cover is awesome, for reals: just look at it! Marigold, vaguely Cher-like, and obviously comfortable with her teenage sexuality, Coke hunkered down and relaxed, with his hand in a casual yet non-sexual curl around his friend’s leg, his friend who is totally organized and competent and a girl, and Nat… Nat looks like an ad for the Bon Jovi Hairclub for Men, sporting this stylin’ mullet (yet clean shaven, even though in the book he has a blond goatee OMG) and also? He’s wearing supenders and an unbuttoned shirt over a smooth, naked chest (clearly something he picked up in the romance section). So you already know what you’re getting into, babies. That’s right: HEDONISM.
Oh, did you think it was a coincidence that the title practically says “group sex?” Because it’s totally not. I mean, group sex doesn’t happen in the actual book, but it’s easy to imagine that it happens at the end when they all quit school to move in together! SO IMPLIED. Also, teachers fucking their students, but it so totally doesn’t count because I don’t think Nat fucks Ludi until the book technically ends, and she’s probably 17 by then, maybe? Plus, he’s only 22 and fresh from college, so yeah, older, but not 42, and not Buffy/Angel old.
But maybe you’re totally fine with the age thing, and you’re hung up on the fact that he, you know, was hired to ASSASSINATE her? and that six weeks living rough in mortal peril manufactured some kind of Stockholm Syndrome Teen Romance? Well, sheesh, come on, he wasn’t actually her killer, so it’s not like he menaced her into bed with him. She actually has an entire school full of boys her own age and in her group to hook up with, so. She makes her decision with clear eyes! Which you can totally do if you’re an old soul and also a little psychic and 16 years old and abandoned/murdered by your rich parents! ::ahem::
But the whole thing where he was hired to murder them? Well, he’s a gambler, but a doof and a sweetheart and he was just desperate, right? And he didn’t really think he was being paid to actually kill them, because he’s so simplehearted it doesn’t even occur to him that it’s not just some elaborate scared straight scheme? And once he realizes that he was, in fact, supposed to actually murder them and also, THIS JUST IN, be murdered in turn, he comes clean and tells them that their parents put them on a hitlist and then he turns them into this team of scrappy survivalists in an amazingly non-creepy way (kind of like Red Dawn, but with way less communist hysteria). He’s just a big goofy golden labrador of a man, who likes to be outside, and not to be kneecapped by the bookie he owes dough to.
It’s just, like, extreme Outward Bound.
To return to the theme so elegantly communicated by the cover, this book is basically full of attempted child murder from the get go. Also, it was a lot cheaper to kill people in 1983. I mean, rich people paid the actual administrators of the school who knows how much to put Xs in their kid’s eyes, but DollarTimes.com told me that the 3K the school would have paid Nat (instead they wisely gave him 1500 and promised to send the rest later) would only be like $6,995.07 in 2012. That’s not even 1400 bucks a head! Nat: assassinatin’ rich kids on the cheap since 1983! Group discounts, woo! (Get it? )
Oh, and I kind of love the guy Nat owes money to: Arn-The-Barn Emfatico. His uncle’s a gangster, and so he’s obliged to collect the cash, even though he likes Nat and he himself isn’t a huge fan of the old ultraviolence. He’s a simple guy. He likes nature and Pepsi and Milky Ways. He has a girlfriend who loves motels: “they kind of turned her on.”
The Grounding of Group Six is amazing for so many reasons: the kids drink and fuck and bond, the adults curse and drink and plot to kill them, and somehow, although the kids go through some crazy deep trauma, they come out remarkably well-adjusted and quite likely to become just the sort of pleasant, relaxed, and totally self-actualized people who become casual billionaires, because they all got to have super cathartic moments that helped them get over their respective mommy and daddy issues. At 10, my takeaway from this book was the steadfast belief that no matter how horrifying my family, I could make it through.
To recap:
1) Villainous parents/authority figures!
2) Healthy teen sexuality with a focus on birth control!
3) One girl is psychic for no apparent reason without any real bearing on the plot!
4) Like everything 80s, it features a training montage!
Seriously, why are you not reading this book right now? It’s so totally great. What I’m saying here is, you should read it. You should read it SO HARD.
Note: The current edition of this book sold on Amazon, both in print and for Kindle, appears to have been released by the author after getting the rights back from his publisher. This means instead of the magnificent cover to which fully half of this post is in praise of, you’ll instead get something he may or may not have created himself in Microsoft Paint. The good news, though, is that almost the entire sale price of any copy sold will go to pay author’s mortgage — purchase it with pride!
October 26, 2020
"You know, it isn't just that parents want their kids to LOOK like names of cars, like Jaguar, Cutlass, Wraith, like that," said Coke. 'They like it if you ACT like one, as well."
The Grounding of Group 6 by Julian F. Thompson
I did not love it.
I read this twice..once in childhood and once more recently. I felt the same feeling both times.
It was a great premise. But I could not get that involved in the story. And this surprised me because with a premise like this it seemed destined to be a book I loved.
But after reading it as an adult, it came back to me why I did not love it as a kid. It had no tension.
Grounding is supposed to be about a group of kids whose parents send them to a special school. What the kids do not know, is that their parents are sending them there to be murdered. They are problem kids and their parents have had enough. They are "group six" and their teacher is really an assassin.
Well it sounds twisted but very compelling. But I could not keep my mind on it. You know there is going to be romance right away. It is practically shouted at you. Everyone seems to be pairing up and the killer starts to have doubts about whether he wants to do away with the kids but the story is told in a way I cannot describe as other then "distracting". Its focus seems to be more on romance and alot of survival in the woods.
I wanted it to be scarier, more dialogue driven and I wanted to know more about the parents. I mean who..what kind of PEOPLE would do such a thing to their children?
The adults are presented here but more as..for lack of a better term..goofballs then anything else. This did not seem to be a thriller in any way as it seemed more like traditional YA with light thriller aspects to it and some romance thrown in but I would classify this more as an adventure ,as for a good part of the book, you learn alot about living and surviving in the woods and forests. It was very different then how I had perceived it to be.
On the positive side, there was also some biting wit which I appreciated but the story for me was not a page turner.
I still would sort of recommend it. What a gritty all around great concept. I was hoping when I read it in adulthood that I'd like it better then I did as a kid. I did not but maybe someone else will!
The Grounding of Group 6 by Julian F. Thompson
I did not love it.
I read this twice..once in childhood and once more recently. I felt the same feeling both times.
It was a great premise. But I could not get that involved in the story. And this surprised me because with a premise like this it seemed destined to be a book I loved.
But after reading it as an adult, it came back to me why I did not love it as a kid. It had no tension.
Grounding is supposed to be about a group of kids whose parents send them to a special school. What the kids do not know, is that their parents are sending them there to be murdered. They are problem kids and their parents have had enough. They are "group six" and their teacher is really an assassin.
Well it sounds twisted but very compelling. But I could not keep my mind on it. You know there is going to be romance right away. It is practically shouted at you. Everyone seems to be pairing up and the killer starts to have doubts about whether he wants to do away with the kids but the story is told in a way I cannot describe as other then "distracting". Its focus seems to be more on romance and alot of survival in the woods.
I wanted it to be scarier, more dialogue driven and I wanted to know more about the parents. I mean who..what kind of PEOPLE would do such a thing to their children?
The adults are presented here but more as..for lack of a better term..goofballs then anything else. This did not seem to be a thriller in any way as it seemed more like traditional YA with light thriller aspects to it and some romance thrown in but I would classify this more as an adventure ,as for a good part of the book, you learn alot about living and surviving in the woods and forests. It was very different then how I had perceived it to be.
On the positive side, there was also some biting wit which I appreciated but the story for me was not a page turner.
I still would sort of recommend it. What a gritty all around great concept. I was hoping when I read it in adulthood that I'd like it better then I did as a kid. I did not but maybe someone else will!
January 12, 2009
This book seriously fucked me up as a kid. I met the author when I was about 15, and told him so, which seems to have delighted him. A creepy, inappropriately sexy, all-around mindfuck of a book. *Awesome*.
I really need to own a copy of this again.
I really need to own a copy of this again.
August 20, 2012
This is the book I point to whenever people complain that today's YA books are OMG SO DARK AND EDGY. This book about a group of kids whose parents sent them off to boarding school with the intent of having them murdered was written THIRTY years ago. YA books have always had edge. Ok, not always, but for more than a generation.
I read this book at least fifty times when I was a teenager. And I turned out ok, right?
I read this book at least fifty times when I was a teenager. And I turned out ok, right?
July 17, 2015
This book was published in 1983 when I was 13 yrs old. I remember reading it and loving it. It resurfaced at the library on the "discard" table and I snatched it up. I was a little bit tentative about rereading and concerned I would be disappointed. To my delight, I was as entertained in my 40's as I was in my teens. A great read, a little dark and edgy. Great plot and lots of twists and turns. I highly suggest giving this a shot.
January 12, 2009
Holy shit I can't believe this book really exists. I thought it was a figment of my childhood imagination.
Read
August 5, 2020A friend told me about this YA novel. If you liked House of Stairs, you'll like this, too. Very suspenseful. Teenagers, a boarding school, murder.
June 19, 2007
I actually found this book disappointing.
The basic plotline is simple: five parents decide to have their kids killed for reasons that are honestly pretty skimpy. The parents are pretty cold and I suppose that's part of why it's a horror, but it still comes off as bizarre more than anything else. They're sent to Coldbrook Country Boarding School, where as part of orientation, everyone goes on a hike. Unbeknownst to them, their guide has been hired to kill them.
Honestly, the parents' motivations are not a problem as such, except that you get the same logic gap in other characters. Nat, the guide, accepts the job without really thinking about it, then decides not to kill them pretty easily as well. The fact that he gets romantically involved with one of the girls as well adds to my general discomfort with him. It's just pointless, the character, his motivations, the whole thing. No consistency, no coherency.
It does have some nice touches -the letters the kids write at the beginning, explaining why they should be accepted to Coldbrook, is nicely creepy- but overall it was just kind of meh. Not scary enough and senseless in the wrong way.
The basic plotline is simple: five parents decide to have their kids killed for reasons that are honestly pretty skimpy. The parents are pretty cold and I suppose that's part of why it's a horror, but it still comes off as bizarre more than anything else. They're sent to Coldbrook Country Boarding School, where as part of orientation, everyone goes on a hike. Unbeknownst to them, their guide has been hired to kill them.
Honestly, the parents' motivations are not a problem as such, except that you get the same logic gap in other characters. Nat, the guide, accepts the job without really thinking about it, then decides not to kill them pretty easily as well. The fact that he gets romantically involved with one of the girls as well adds to my general discomfort with him. It's just pointless, the character, his motivations, the whole thing. No consistency, no coherency.
It does have some nice touches -the letters the kids write at the beginning, explaining why they should be accepted to Coldbrook, is nicely creepy- but overall it was just kind of meh. Not scary enough and senseless in the wrong way.
September 15, 2011
I remember reading this book when I was around thirteen or fourteen years old and if I were to admit to any book messing me up as a child then this would be that book. It's such a great read, though, and it seems to get better the more I re-read it and I'm not one to re-read books that often, Only a select few. Early V.C. Andrews, Bridge to Terabitha to name a few. I must admit that I do not like the new cover they picked for this book. The old cover, the one that showed the group standing together on the grass I think portrayed the characters a lot better. Do yourself a favor and go look up the original cover. This is one of my favourite books of all time. I love it so much that my own paperback copy is so worn down from having been read and re-read so many times that the cover is half torn off and the ends of the pages are yellowed and curled over each other. The story is simple enough; A group of kids are send off to a boarding school because they, the parents, are tired of dealing with them. They descend into the forest on what they are told is a traditional start of school camp-out with the only adult being the leader of "Group Six". What the kids don't know, but find out soon enough, is that there's another, more sinister reason for this camping trip and that it's going to take all their wits and then some to survive. The book goes through the lives and backstories of each of it's intriguing characters and you remember them for a long time after you've finished the book.
October 16, 2018
Wow! What a strange, surreal book. Five teens: hard-edged, cynical Marigold and Coke; gentler, more innocent Sully and Sara; and Ludi, who has the Sight. At first I felt sorry for poor Ludi, with no match, but then I remembered Nat, the handsome, very young teacher. Everyone would have a mate after all.
I wish everyone hadn't paired off quite so quickly; I would have liked some more about the Group bonding as a group, sisterly and brotherly.
The main villain, Doctor, is a very campy madman who switches from speech to singing Frank Sinatra songs or old show tunes. He was a little too much...in a good way, though, I think.
I would have liked to see the kids confront their parents. I was very disappointed when that took place in a phone booth I couldn't hear through. The horror of the premise was pretty well explored, but the parents were pretty two-dimensional. I guess they were meant to be just plain evil.
But these things aside, this was an exciting, very funny story of friends and lovers surviving together.
I wish everyone hadn't paired off quite so quickly; I would have liked some more about the Group bonding as a group, sisterly and brotherly.
The main villain, Doctor, is a very campy madman who switches from speech to singing Frank Sinatra songs or old show tunes. He was a little too much...in a good way, though, I think.
I would have liked to see the kids confront their parents. I was very disappointed when that took place in a phone booth I couldn't hear through. The horror of the premise was pretty well explored, but the parents were pretty two-dimensional. I guess they were meant to be just plain evil.
But these things aside, this was an exciting, very funny story of friends and lovers surviving together.
July 6, 2012
Lesson learned.... the books that you loved in high school are best left as memories. This was a favorite high school book of mine that I reread because of a recent novel that reminded me of this. It is so not what I remembered. Character development is weak. Plot is a bit off. And many times it is just a bit hokey. Basic story line is that there is a group of five kids who are sent to a boarding school.. except group 6 is the group that isn't supposed to make it to the school because their parents want them killed. Well, this group of kids and the leader decide to buck the system and survive. I guess in high school the fact that everything neatly falls into place was appealing. As an adult, I find it unbelievable and ridiculous. I enjoyed getting in touch with my past, but I think I'll stay away from my other book memories.
May 4, 2021
Wild. Snarky-er, darker, racier, and hornier than your typical 80s YA. And longer too. Refreshing, really. Kinda like The Breakfast Club with all your typical teen archetypes, but instead of high school detention, there’s a plan to have them assassinated. Could’ve done without the gratuitous descriptions of the girls’ bodies (gross) and the teacher/student relationship. Ending was cheesy. Enjoyed it though! Really appreciated the character building, and I never felt like the dialogue was trying too hard. Necessary reading for vintage YA fans.
March 19, 2010
I read this as a teen and it has stuck in my head ever since.
Read
June 29, 2021My read for this weekend is about a group of teens who are sent to a murderous boarding school for their irredeemable crimes, such as plagiarizing an English essay and, uh, not sufficiently tucking their shirt tails into their pants. Parents in the '80s had higher standards, I guess.
The plan? Poison them ☠️ and then toss 'em down a big hole in the mountains ⛰ 🕳 💀💀💀💀💀 And people say “the perfect crime doesn’t exist” 😏
The plan? Poison them ☠️ and then toss 'em down a big hole in the mountains ⛰ 🕳 💀💀💀💀💀 And people say “the perfect crime doesn’t exist” 😏
December 7, 2017
This was a great book! It's a YA novel, about five kids whose parents really, really want to get rid of them. One of the things that confused me when I started reading it was that the parents' attitude towards the kids seemed to be more of a Gen X parent attitude. But the pub. date on the Kindle edition was 2011, which would make the kids Millenials. When I googled it, though, the book turns out to have been originally published in 1983. So they ARE Gen X teenagers. There is also a sixth main character, their "student advisor" who is only a few years older than them, a recent college student.
At first I didn't know if I was going to like the book or not. I was expecting more of a straight suspense novel involving a group of teens, based on the description I read. Something like "House Of Stairs". In the beginning, I felt like this book was trying a little too hard to be quirky. There were some adult characters in the book who were a little cartoonish. However, this book grew on me. For one thing, I realized at some point, not too far in, that I really liked and cared about the main characters. Also, there was an exciting plot. I had absolutely no idea whatsoever how it was going to end. (It had a very satisfying ending!) And, after awhile, I started to enjoy the "quirky" writing style. Also, there was some very funny, sly dark humor.
At first I didn't know if I was going to like the book or not. I was expecting more of a straight suspense novel involving a group of teens, based on the description I read. Something like "House Of Stairs". In the beginning, I felt like this book was trying a little too hard to be quirky. There were some adult characters in the book who were a little cartoonish. However, this book grew on me. For one thing, I realized at some point, not too far in, that I really liked and cared about the main characters. Also, there was an exciting plot. I had absolutely no idea whatsoever how it was going to end. (It had a very satisfying ending!) And, after awhile, I started to enjoy the "quirky" writing style. Also, there was some very funny, sly dark humor.
March 18, 2008
It is hard to know how to rate this book. I did enjoy reading it, but partly because it was so absurdly, ostentatiously, hilariously bad.
Here is the premise: Somewhere in Vermont is a little private school for students of the gifted-yet-troubled variety. The atmosphere is that of a kind of hippy reform school. For the most troubled students, there is a special program, Group Six. These children have brought such shame and disgust to their parents, that the parents have opted to enroll in a program whose purpose is to kill them, as quickly and as quietly as possible... A "teacher" is supposed to take them on an "orientation hike" and kill them in the mountains. When the "teacher" accomplishes this, he will then be killed by school administrators.
If you are not already guffawing at the thick layers of humor, then I can't help you. The book is written completely without irony, and (inevitably) the six principle characters (five troubled students, plus one young, troubled teacher/hit man) end up neatly parcelled into three couples. A rollicking good time.
Here is the premise: Somewhere in Vermont is a little private school for students of the gifted-yet-troubled variety. The atmosphere is that of a kind of hippy reform school. For the most troubled students, there is a special program, Group Six. These children have brought such shame and disgust to their parents, that the parents have opted to enroll in a program whose purpose is to kill them, as quickly and as quietly as possible... A "teacher" is supposed to take them on an "orientation hike" and kill them in the mountains. When the "teacher" accomplishes this, he will then be killed by school administrators.
If you are not already guffawing at the thick layers of humor, then I can't help you. The book is written completely without irony, and (inevitably) the six principle characters (five troubled students, plus one young, troubled teacher/hit man) end up neatly parcelled into three couples. A rollicking good time.
October 20, 2014
Given that this book is thirty years old, I'm not too surprised that there's a lot of dull portions. Exposition seems to be something we're losing as the years mount. Only the fact that there was death somewhere in this kept me reading.
That being said, it was such a good read that, only now, after I've finished, do I think that the baddies were awfully bumbling and rather cavalierly evil. I won't say one-note as their characters were fleshed out enough to make them individuals, but it's fashionable these days to want nuanced villains who aren't just plain evil. Although, if anything, these bad guys were polyester evil.
A solid story about a group of misfits trying not to be killed off who end up killing the bad guys themselves. Oh, and becoming a team.
That being said, it was such a good read that, only now, after I've finished, do I think that the baddies were awfully bumbling and rather cavalierly evil. I won't say one-note as their characters were fleshed out enough to make them individuals, but it's fashionable these days to want nuanced villains who aren't just plain evil. Although, if anything, these bad guys were polyester evil.
A solid story about a group of misfits trying not to be killed off who end up killing the bad guys themselves. Oh, and becoming a team.
March 12, 2018
This book.
I loved it the moment I first read it. It appealed to the neglected, hyper independent child in me. It appealed to the dystopian outlook I had then.
It was this novel that caused me to write my first novel - in seventh grade, in two spiral notebooks.
I knew parents who were not nice, who wore faces of kindness as they sought to destroy their children behind closed doors. So a novel whose premise is the murder of a group of teens fit understandably well with my experience of the selfish destructiveness of authority figures.
I loved it the moment I first read it. It appealed to the neglected, hyper independent child in me. It appealed to the dystopian outlook I had then.
It was this novel that caused me to write my first novel - in seventh grade, in two spiral notebooks.
I knew parents who were not nice, who wore faces of kindness as they sought to destroy their children behind closed doors. So a novel whose premise is the murder of a group of teens fit understandably well with my experience of the selfish destructiveness of authority figures.
June 11, 2007
Loved it as much at 30 as I did at 13. The premise is shocking, yet believable. Despite the seemingly dark subject matter, this book is both funny and tender without a hint of schmaltz. Growing up, I read and loved all of Julian F. Thompson's books; but this one was my favorite. (Wow, I must have had some serious alienation issues.)
April 18, 2010
I read this in middle school. It probably wasn't really age appropriate then. LOL But it was awesome and a little shocking. I've always remembered this story but couldn't remember the name. Just found it online and wanted to share. I'll be looking for it to buy, I'd like to keep it in my collection. It's lot's of fun and dark.
September 26, 2011
I read this when I was in high school and even though I'm into my 30's now I still think about this book now and again. It was one of those weird books that stick with you when you read it at the right time. Would it have the same impact on me today? Probably not, I'm going to assume you have to read when you're a teenager for it to affect you but either way its a good story.
October 29, 2011
I read this many years ago when I was twelve or thirteen and then passed it around to all my friends because the twist was made of awesome. Someday I'll get another copy of it and do a proper review to see if it lives up to my standards now. Either way though, it was a great reading experience back then.
March 5, 2015
I loved this book as a kid. I remember buying it at Waldenbooks at the mall and then heading to the cookie store to buy a cookie and read while my mom shopped. I read it over and over--think I'll have to buy the new version for my library!
March 4, 2015
This was my favorite book in 1989. I haven't read it in over 20 years and I'm not sure I want to. I have such great memories of reading it under the covers at church camp that perhaps I'll just let them be.
November 1, 2013
Loved it
September 18, 2022
I first read this 39 (!) years ago and I still think about it
January 24, 2008
I totally loved this book in 1986. It must have been republished.
December 24, 2023
They say ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover.’ Which is true.
But you can’t decide to read a book without looking at its cover.
The cover of this book had six young kids with 70’s hair posing defiantly like they are on trial for hippiness.
The painting style was ‘my other art job is porn paperbacks’ .
Over the title is a banner that says “FLARE ORIGINAL NOVEL” so those kids are looking to join the most romantic cult ever!
The teaser line on the cover was “Parents don’t kill their kids for just one reason. They’re afraid they’ll get caught.”
Well, I’m not judging the book by the cover, but I’m sure as hell reading it! Hh
So afar, on the cover I’ve figured out that #4 is Nat (p.1)/Nate (p.3), Rittenhouse (p.1) #2 is Robert (p.6) “Sully” Sullivan (p.9), #3 is Louisa “Ludi” Rebecca Locke (p.8), #5 is Coleman (p.6) “Coke” (17yrs, p.12) DeCoursey (p.74). #6 is Sara (p.15) Slayman (p.81) Winfrey (p.75), which leaves #1 as Marigold.
“Kids who don’t have hideouts often grow up fast. A hideout tends to keep a person tethered to his childhood, to a world that isn’t organized and ruled and limited by grown-ups, a world where nothing you can think of is impossible.” This might actually explain a lot about me…
The thing about this book is that it doesn’t really give any indication of what type of book it is. These kids are all more or less dumped at this ‘special school’ by their parents.
The are not particularly bothered about it and try to go along with the program.
They are fed and then Nate takes them on a trek through the woods. But Nate tells the some lies and leads them around so that they can’t find their way back. Why? Who knows?
And then Ludi talks about how she can ‘see things’ and always has. On the trail she sees a stagecoach ride past. Active imagination? Psychic? Who knows?
I sort of thought that the writing would be dated somehow and its actually not. Some of the references are a little older, but it could be a book written today. A book about a serial killer who leads a bunch of teens out to the woods, but still a book written today.
It’s actually a pretty fascinating book. Most books about kids are pretty predictable. They have the ‘kid’ personality, not veering very far away from the ‘Breakfast Club’ stereotypes (nerd, jock, princess, weirdo, etc.).
But these kids are very individual. And very different from each other, though they all seem to have been problems for their parents, but the individual details are very interesting.
Well, I don’t think it’s a very good idea to take a check for an assassination, but I’m a very suspicious person.
“But dear, he’s such a sweet boy,” Mother Rittenhouse insisted (she who’d always knock for nine when gin was just a card away).” I think this is a card playing phrase.
“I’ve learned that everything is pretty much like everything else. And I also learned that nothing is the same as anything.”
Of course, now that they’ve figured out that their parents are trying to kill them, they have to decide what they will do about it.
They decide to keep hiding, but eventually figure out that they should try to get some evidence on their parents to strike back at them and earn their freedom.
But of course, those who were hired to kill them are still looking for them.
One thing I really like about this book is how … peculiar the writing style is.
All of the adults and kids are strange unique characters. The adults almost cartoony. There is a weird way the author has of phrasing things that makes the book a pleasure to read, in addition to the intriguing plot.
There is a glorious section where Sully and Ludi tell each other everything they learned in school about how to become a proper citizen.
“‘I almost pinched myself,’ Mrs. Ripple said, imagining herself being pinched, not by herself, but by the seven finalists in the Belleville (N.J.) Iron-Pumpers Body Building contest, all glistening with olive oil and wearing satin jock straps.”
“Whatever dorm found Cone would win itself a brand new Betamax TV recorder!” Okay, so maybe it’s a little dated.
“They all had hand guns with them because that’s the kind of people they were.”
Wow. That’s one weirdass book. I very much enjoyed it for it’s quirkiness.
Critically I would say that the ending was a little too easy, but it would have had to have ended in a similar way anyway (unless there were about six sequels).
I’d only recommend if you like weird characters and weird writing. I’m not sure it actually ‘says’ very much, but it’s an entertaining read.
I’ll give it 3 stars. Its above average, but also somewhat off-beat.
I’ll keep it because I love the cover.
October 11, 2020
The edition I read was the original, published in 1983, and I'm not sure if the story has been updated in the new edition. I think it would be harder to pull off this story in the days of GPS and social media.
Interesting premise: parents whose children have turned out to be not what the parents were hoping for when they decided to have children. And these parents are used to having their own way and to being able to have the world go as they want it. So, if your child is a complete embarrassment or disappointment, this school offers you a way out: send your kid to boarding school and never hear from them again.
I did have some trouble with the logistics, though. Even if both parents agree on getting rid of the inconvenient teenager, how do you explain the child's disappearance to other family members and friends? While a school could have one group of kids on a weekend outdoor bonding trip disappear, it would be very difficult to explain how one group disappears every year. Both the local law enforcement and the liability insurers would look askance at a school with repeated events of this nature. Someone would notice that a kid went off to school and never came back -- especially the siblings of the disappeared ones.
Convenient that all six paired off and that there was no serious disagreement between the members of the group. I can't imagine the shared experience making any six people get along all that well for any length of time. There would be fights and spats.
Good novel.
Interesting premise: parents whose children have turned out to be not what the parents were hoping for when they decided to have children. And these parents are used to having their own way and to being able to have the world go as they want it. So, if your child is a complete embarrassment or disappointment, this school offers you a way out: send your kid to boarding school and never hear from them again.
I did have some trouble with the logistics, though. Even if both parents agree on getting rid of the inconvenient teenager, how do you explain the child's disappearance to other family members and friends? While a school could have one group of kids on a weekend outdoor bonding trip disappear, it would be very difficult to explain how one group disappears every year. Both the local law enforcement and the liability insurers would look askance at a school with repeated events of this nature. Someone would notice that a kid went off to school and never came back -- especially the siblings of the disappeared ones.
Convenient that all six paired off and that there was no serious disagreement between the members of the group. I can't imagine the shared experience making any six people get along all that well for any length of time. There would be fights and spats.
Good novel.
October 1, 2023
I'm back again reading and reviewing a book that's from the early 80s and one that I had reread multiple times as a young teen, like 13 to 15. THE GROUNDING OF GROUP 6 is a drama/thriller, more drama than heart-pounding thrills, but a YA that I remember liking because the concept of being on your own in the woods with a group of kids appealed to be when I was a young teen.
Reading this book now, as an adult in 2023, had several cringe moments for me -- hence the three-star rating. I know many of the things that made me cringe were considered acceptable in 1983, but still, ew. First, is the how fat-phobic it is. That weight stigma runs throughout the book, in fact, it starts in the first sentence of the book. I get it's the author's way of creating the image of how the group's parents are but for me, I found it bothersome.
Overall, I still like the concept of a a group of wealthy parents deciding that they were simply done with their kids, for whatever reason. And that by being "done" with them, these parents take the unimaginable step to sign up their children to be in Group 6 at this special school. They pay the school to kill and get rid of their kid. However, when the group's leader decides he can't go through with it, Group 6 finds themselves on the run, hiding out in the wood and trying to come to grips with their new reality.
Will I reread it again? I'm not sure, but I am glad I picked it up after so many years. It's interesting to go back and reread books from my early teen years now. The perspective is quite different.
Reading this book now, as an adult in 2023, had several cringe moments for me -- hence the three-star rating. I know many of the things that made me cringe were considered acceptable in 1983, but still, ew. First, is the how fat-phobic it is. That weight stigma runs throughout the book, in fact, it starts in the first sentence of the book. I get it's the author's way of creating the image of how the group's parents are but for me, I found it bothersome.
Overall, I still like the concept of a a group of wealthy parents deciding that they were simply done with their kids, for whatever reason. And that by being "done" with them, these parents take the unimaginable step to sign up their children to be in Group 6 at this special school. They pay the school to kill and get rid of their kid. However, when the group's leader decides he can't go through with it, Group 6 finds themselves on the run, hiding out in the wood and trying to come to grips with their new reality.
Will I reread it again? I'm not sure, but I am glad I picked it up after so many years. It's interesting to go back and reread books from my early teen years now. The perspective is quite different.
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