Gypsyworld

by Julian F. Thompson

Five teenagers--Alec, Brenda, Carrie, Dennis, and Elizabeth--are sold to gypsies and realize that they have the opportunity to change their world, living in a community in concert with the earth and nature.

Genres: Fiction

229 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Tamara Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Gypsyworld” is a teen novel consisting of twenty-three chapters and focuses on a group of five kidnapped teens surviving life in a strange land.

The novel begins with the reader being introduced to main characters Josip and Marina, the Kings and Queen of the Gypsies. The couple have been assigned a mission to bring back five teens from outside Gypsyworld to help with an experiment.

Driving a Winnebago, the couple capitalize on a new movie recently released called “The Gypsies” to trick people into selling their kids. After the deal is completed, Josip and Marina given the seller a mixture of roots and herbs to give to the unsuspecting teen. After the sleeping teen is transferred to their Winnebago, the couple pays the seller.

When the couple realizes they are short of their quota of five teens, the decide to kidnap teens they are walking down a deserted street by using chloroform.

As the novel progresses, the kidnapped teens wake up and are warmly greeted by Josip and Marina. Although Josip and Marina have good intentions, all of their actions are sketchy and lead to distrust among the teens. After Josip and Marina explain that they’ve adopted the teens, they rename them Alec (age seventeen, Brenda (age sixteen,) Carrie (age fifteen,) Dennis (age fourteen,) and Elizabeth (age thirteen.)

As the teens get used to their new surroundings, alliances are formed and battle lines are drawn. Dennis tries to establish himself as group leader early on but finds no support from other teens.

Alec and Brenda jockey for the role of leader among the teens and despite Alec trying to win the trust of the other teens by calling them by their actual real names, everyone decides to continue using their adopted names to remain anonymous.

Brenda makes the bold move to walk into town but in net by being completely ignored by other gypies. Carrie steps out of her comfort zone by having conversations with Alec and Brenda which are two people she wouldn’t talk to outside of Gypsyworld. Although Elizabeth was treated poorly in the real world, in Gypsyworld, she is valued as someone turning thirteen. Alec, Brenda, and Carrie work together to give Elizabeth a memorable birthday. Dennis returns and the teens quickly probe him for what he experienced while away from them.

Dennis makes a plan to escape using violence and the other teen’s reluctantly go along with it since they’re so desperate to return home. The group is outwitted by the Josip and Marina and the teens are left to fend for themselves. While the group walk to find their way out Gypsyworld, they meet a boy named Francisco (aka Cisco) who is working as a census taker counting plants in the forest. Brenda and Cisco make a deal and he tells her their purpose for being in Gypsyworld.

The teens eventually learn that Earth and Gypsyworld exist side by side and they were brought there to represent all the people of Earth to see if they could be rehabilitated and become friends of the environment. Upon arriving in Gypsyworld, people were afraid of being infected with worse if Earthlings traits such as wastefulness, harmfulness, and greed. By the end of the novel, the group is reunited and they find their way home.

I remember reading this as a teen and being drawn in by the storyline of people working together to preserve the environment. As an adult, the plot seems unjust considering that the teen characters were sold to the Gypsies by their parents or were kidnapped off the street.

Another thing I totally missed when I read this book as a teen versus rereading it as an adult is that although five teens were taken, there are six teens on the book cover but the identity of the sixth teen is explained much later in the novel.

While reading this novel, I did laugh at how when I read this as a teen, I thought that fifty-eight was super old. Now that I’ve read this novel as a woman in my forties, fifty -eight doesn’t seem old at all although I did find it odd that the narrator doesn’t provide the Queen’s age, only stating that she looked to be a little younger that her husband.

Lastly, the writing was clunky in some parts and didn’t read right to me (examples: one was much the biggest, there was a goodly amount of bikes, and it’s much the biggest.)