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Goodhouse
'Page-turning' KAREN JAY FOWLER'Powerful NEW YORK TIMESGoodhouse is not supposed to be a prison. Despite the guard dogs, the tracking devices, and the fact that the boys are mandated to attend and unable to leave, it’s supposed to be a second - and final -chance.Across the country, sixty thousand boys are locked into Goodhouse campuses until they turn 18. What they all have in common are the genetic markers that indicate a predisposition towards violent and criminal behavior. Every lesson taught at Goodhouse is meant to be an honest effort to correct their inherent ‘wrong-thinking,’ to train them for a future when they might join the civilian world. Goodhouse tells the story of James, a boy condemned to the system at the age of three. With no memory of his parents or even his real name, James thrives at the La Pine campus where he’s grown up, following the (many) rules, making friends, singing in the choir, all the while practicing ‘right-thinking’- until the school is violently attacked by Zeros, a group of people who think Goodhouse boys should simply be eliminated, much like rabid dogs.James is the only survivor. Traumatised, he is transferred to a larger and more terrifying school. There he realizes that whatever its intentions, the Goodhouse system has created a culture of good-seeming boys that aspire to do wrong, to be the meanest and strongest no matter the stakes. A morning beating is more common than a decent breakfast; the boys are used as guinea pigs to test dangerous new drugs; some disappear without warning, never to be seen again. Goodhouse has come to be a world that thrives on fear and division - where hatred and hopelessness are the heartbeat of a population on the verge of chaos. In order to survive, James must forge new alliances and break every rule he’s been conditioned to follow for his entire life.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 30, 2014
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1831 people want to read
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June 4, 2020
The older something is, the more work it is to maintain.
let's get the ranting out of the way, because while i did enjoy reading this novel as an entertainment, i had some problems with its premise.
this is a near-future mini-dystopia full of environmental disasters and war and social unrest. also in this imagined future, the genetic markers for criminality have been identified, and the male relatives of all convicted felons have been tested for these markers. if they test positive, they are sent to goodhouses as young boys, where they are reprogrammed with routines and "right-thinking" mantras like People are not aware of their limitations because those limitations prevent awareness and hopefully by the time they turn 18, they will have achieved level 1 status, and be able to reintegrate into polite society. yeah, you read that right. only the males. because this genetic marker does not predict shit in girls. which is just kind of glossed over in a couple of sentences as though it is inconsequential.
now, i am not a scientist. i don't have any responsibility to science to point out others who are being lazy with it. and i have no problem reading books that say "fuck you, science!" as long as the story around it is compelling. and this one just... isn't. it's not bad, it's just nothing new.
now, were this a YA novel, i would be more inclined to raise my fist in the "fuck science!" shout, because plausibility is not necessary to enjoy a good YA-dystoadventure. but it isn't. and if you're making me get out my suspension-of-disbelief bonnet, you had better captivate me. but it's a pretty pedestrian tale, and i'm not sure what sets it apart, except for this genetic premise which doesn't hold water.
and it's lunacy - the idea of putting a bunch of teenage boys who have been "scientifically proven" to have a propensity for violent behavior and criminality under one roof and who on top of that have all the normal teenage hormones that boys have, and then denying them the normal social outlets for releasing all this excess energy - deprived of all socializing and sexual development and exercise and treating them like animals who don't even have their own names or connection to their family, creating all this caged heat and still maintaining this optimistic expectation for seamless integration after so much exclusion…i mean WHAT COULD GO WRONG??
strangely enough, the ultimate opposing force and the danger rarely comes from the powderkeg boys themselves. sure, the proctors and class leaders abuse their status-privileges and take out their frustrations on the lesser boys, but there are also religious revolutionaries called zeros, who attack goodhouses and the boys within, and also some shady mad scientist drug-experimentation going on inside the goodhouses which further exacerbates the situation.
our main character, james goodhouse, is slippery - we don't always know if he is acting or being acted upon, and he is neither criminal nor heroic. things happen to him and he makes things happen, but in many ways he is simply an observer. his last goodhouse was attacked by the zeros, and he managed to survive, but he is damaged from the incident, beyond the damage you would expect from someone so isolated from a normal existence. sometimes he is drugged and becomes less reliable as a narrator, but he's not a particularly dynamic character in general. he just seems to be there to build this story around.
there are a couple of moments where i thought something interesting was happening, like in this description of how we manage to acclimate to circumstances that seem unlivable
and some of the developments towards the end that are too complicated to cliffs notes here were intriguing and seemed to be moving the story in an unexpected direction, but i had too many questions overall, that were inconsequential, but nagging. like like how would he even know what ginger or cinnamon smells like? and how did he meet up with bethany again? everything just seems glossed-over, details elided to get back to the story.
apparently this is based on the preston school of industry, a reform school opened in 1894 which looks like this:
and whose alum include merle haggard, neal cassady, and eddie bunker.
but while there seem to have been some power-abuses at that school and rumors of ghosties, there isn't anything like the situation described in this book.
so, it's not terrible, and if you are a fan of these kind of books, it's definitely worth reading, it's just for me, there wasn't anything particularly new being brought to the genre, and nothing memorable about it. but it's not the worst, despite my cranky review. i'm a crank, don't listen to me. read a book.
come to my blog!
let's get the ranting out of the way, because while i did enjoy reading this novel as an entertainment, i had some problems with its premise.
this is a near-future mini-dystopia full of environmental disasters and war and social unrest. also in this imagined future, the genetic markers for criminality have been identified, and the male relatives of all convicted felons have been tested for these markers. if they test positive, they are sent to goodhouses as young boys, where they are reprogrammed with routines and "right-thinking" mantras like People are not aware of their limitations because those limitations prevent awareness and hopefully by the time they turn 18, they will have achieved level 1 status, and be able to reintegrate into polite society. yeah, you read that right. only the males. because this genetic marker does not predict shit in girls. which is just kind of glossed over in a couple of sentences as though it is inconsequential.
now, i am not a scientist. i don't have any responsibility to science to point out others who are being lazy with it. and i have no problem reading books that say "fuck you, science!" as long as the story around it is compelling. and this one just... isn't. it's not bad, it's just nothing new.
now, were this a YA novel, i would be more inclined to raise my fist in the "fuck science!" shout, because plausibility is not necessary to enjoy a good YA-dystoadventure. but it isn't. and if you're making me get out my suspension-of-disbelief bonnet, you had better captivate me. but it's a pretty pedestrian tale, and i'm not sure what sets it apart, except for this genetic premise which doesn't hold water.
and it's lunacy - the idea of putting a bunch of teenage boys who have been "scientifically proven" to have a propensity for violent behavior and criminality under one roof and who on top of that have all the normal teenage hormones that boys have, and then denying them the normal social outlets for releasing all this excess energy - deprived of all socializing and sexual development and exercise and treating them like animals who don't even have their own names or connection to their family, creating all this caged heat and still maintaining this optimistic expectation for seamless integration after so much exclusion…i mean WHAT COULD GO WRONG??
strangely enough, the ultimate opposing force and the danger rarely comes from the powderkeg boys themselves. sure, the proctors and class leaders abuse their status-privileges and take out their frustrations on the lesser boys, but there are also religious revolutionaries called zeros, who attack goodhouses and the boys within, and also some shady mad scientist drug-experimentation going on inside the goodhouses which further exacerbates the situation.
our main character, james goodhouse, is slippery - we don't always know if he is acting or being acted upon, and he is neither criminal nor heroic. things happen to him and he makes things happen, but in many ways he is simply an observer. his last goodhouse was attacked by the zeros, and he managed to survive, but he is damaged from the incident, beyond the damage you would expect from someone so isolated from a normal existence. sometimes he is drugged and becomes less reliable as a narrator, but he's not a particularly dynamic character in general. he just seems to be there to build this story around.
there are a couple of moments where i thought something interesting was happening, like in this description of how we manage to acclimate to circumstances that seem unlivable
For the first few hours it seemed impossible that anyone could survive in this room. But then I began to understand how it might happen. A person would change, adapt. The room would alter them. It was already happening. I already knew which corner was the driest. I stood beside the door where the air was better and a small beam of greenish light made it possible for me to see my hand. The process was so simple, so natural - and more than anything I'd felt at Ione, it terrified me. It filled me with an angry resolve, a determination not to change - no matter the circumstance, no matter the room.
and some of the developments towards the end that are too complicated to cliffs notes here were intriguing and seemed to be moving the story in an unexpected direction, but i had too many questions overall, that were inconsequential, but nagging. like like how would he even know what ginger or cinnamon smells like? and how did he meet up with bethany again? everything just seems glossed-over, details elided to get back to the story.
apparently this is based on the preston school of industry, a reform school opened in 1894 which looks like this:
and whose alum include merle haggard, neal cassady, and eddie bunker.
but while there seem to have been some power-abuses at that school and rumors of ghosties, there isn't anything like the situation described in this book.
so, it's not terrible, and if you are a fan of these kind of books, it's definitely worth reading, it's just for me, there wasn't anything particularly new being brought to the genre, and nothing memorable about it. but it's not the worst, despite my cranky review. i'm a crank, don't listen to me. read a book.
come to my blog!
September 27, 2023
I enjoyed this book and found myself getting through it quickly. However I found it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.
Although I very much liked the main character James, at times I almost forgot he was narrating and it felt a little detached. I also felt the other characters could have been more fleshed out and that their personalities and motives only really came out on a few occasions when it was sort of too late.
To me, the moral and ethics of the story got lost. It does explore the corrosive effects of fear and redemptive power of love but it was not as obvious or as deep as I would have liked it to have been.
However it was an entertaining book and an interesting dystopian novel to read.
Although I very much liked the main character James, at times I almost forgot he was narrating and it felt a little detached. I also felt the other characters could have been more fleshed out and that their personalities and motives only really came out on a few occasions when it was sort of too late.
To me, the moral and ethics of the story got lost. It does explore the corrosive effects of fear and redemptive power of love but it was not as obvious or as deep as I would have liked it to have been.
However it was an entertaining book and an interesting dystopian novel to read.
July 24, 2014
I teach high school English in New York City, and my students are insatiable consumers of dystopian fiction. These are books for which I haven't been able to muster a lot of enthusiasm (nor, in most instances, been willing to finish). Still, I nod my head and smile when students tell me they like them, delighted that they're reading but wishing that the books were ones whose ideas were more nuanced and whose prose aspired to a level higher than "serviceable." Goodhouse is that book--morally complex, immaculately written, and impossible to put down--and I'm eager to recommend it to my students and colleagues alike.
Much as Ishiguro does in Never Let Me Go, Marshall evokes a world that hews terrifyingly close to our own. In Goodhouse, genetic markers are used to determine whether a boy will attend school in a conventional setting or be separated from his family and educated in a Goodhouse. A glance at a typical special education classroom tells us that already we’re warehousing our students, using, instead of genetic markers, their proxies: race and sex. At the Goodhouse schools, students are trained in “right thinking,” a phrase that struck me as almost too Orwellian until I saw the following words on a poster at my own school: “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions.” Few people question the make-up of those special education classes, and no one has said anything about the poster. And it’s exactly this, I think, that Marshall portrays most movingly: how easily acclimated we become to our own oppression and how just as readily we rationalize our oppression of others. (James, who questions the Goodhouse orthodoxies, is the rebel I root for, but it’s to Owen, who finds comfort in the status quo, that I most relate.)
Goodhouse may take place in the future, but it's with the problems of the present that it contends and does so with a subtlety rare in a book so masterfully plotted. I love this book, and I can't wait to share it with others.
Much as Ishiguro does in Never Let Me Go, Marshall evokes a world that hews terrifyingly close to our own. In Goodhouse, genetic markers are used to determine whether a boy will attend school in a conventional setting or be separated from his family and educated in a Goodhouse. A glance at a typical special education classroom tells us that already we’re warehousing our students, using, instead of genetic markers, their proxies: race and sex. At the Goodhouse schools, students are trained in “right thinking,” a phrase that struck me as almost too Orwellian until I saw the following words on a poster at my own school: “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions.” Few people question the make-up of those special education classes, and no one has said anything about the poster. And it’s exactly this, I think, that Marshall portrays most movingly: how easily acclimated we become to our own oppression and how just as readily we rationalize our oppression of others. (James, who questions the Goodhouse orthodoxies, is the rebel I root for, but it’s to Owen, who finds comfort in the status quo, that I most relate.)
Goodhouse may take place in the future, but it's with the problems of the present that it contends and does so with a subtlety rare in a book so masterfully plotted. I love this book, and I can't wait to share it with others.
October 16, 2014
Listened 10/1/14 - 10/13/14
4 Stars: Strongly recommended to readers who enjoy being warned away from an inevitable and unwelcome future
Audio: 10.8 hrs, narrated by Will Damron
Publisher: FSG
Released: September 2014
Science will be man's downfall. We are getting too smart for our own good and it will be the end of us.
In Peyton Marshall's near-future dystopian novel Goodhouse, we have discovered the genes that predict criminality. Believed to be passed down from parent to child, all male children born to convicted parents are tested at a young age for these genetic markers. If they test positive, they are taken away to Goodhouses - part boarding school, part prison - where they are locked away and trained how to be "right thinking" members of society by their 18th birthday.
The problem with this? Well, for starters, the genetic coding seems to only detect criminality in boys. Not girls. So we're only in a position to attempt correction or rehabilitation on a portion of our population. To that I say, if you can't go big, you might as well go home. Throw the friggen towel in. The battle was lost before it even began. Talk about unfair. In other cultures and countries being born a boy meant a life of privilege.But not anymore. Turn up positive for those tell-tale genes and all of your rights are stripped from you in the blink of an eye. By the end of this century, you'd be better off born a girl.
However, after hearing about all the shit that goes on behind the gates and walls of those Goodhouses, you'd think that the proctors and teachers were actually trying to break, instead of heal, those poor young boys. Paired up in dormitories, as you might be during your freshmen year of college, the boys are issued new names and these neat little GPS chips - surgically placed under the skin near their bellies - that broadcast where you are, where you've been, and what you've been doing. If you fail to follow a rule, or report to your class or dorm room late, or you back-talk a class leader or proctor, you and your roommate are issued demerits. Yup. Both of you. Nothing like pitting you and your bestie against each other and creating a stressful, hostile situation, right? Hell, to sweeten the pot, not only do those demerits cause conflict among roommates once you earn them, those demerits also weigh against your statuses. Ultimately, you want to be a Level 1. That means you're top-notch. You behave yourself and abide by all the rules. When you graduate from Goodhouse at a level 1, you're guaranteed to return to society with all the privileges and responsibilities of a normal "civilian".
Needless to say, Goodhouses are breeding grounds for some wicked fighting and mistreatment. An entire school, populated by frustrated, confused, brainwashed teenaged boys with mouths full of hate and fists of fury.... nah, we never predicted THAT would go bad, did we? As if they needed any more provocation, Class leaders are allowed to torture and torment their peers, right in front of teachers and proctors, without repercussion. And the only way to unseat a Class Leader is to challenge them in a fight. Win the fight, and you're the new Class Leader. Lose, and... well... it could be confinement for you at the worst, or a boatload of demerits at the best.
Oh, and did I mention that there's this crazy religious group called The Zero's who view the Goodhouses and all those who live within its walls as abominations? And they torch the buildings and students, setting purifying fires to purge the world of these miscreants? And some of them have worked their way into the system and function as Goodhouse staff, working their evil from the inside out?
Marshall's novel, written from the pov of one of the students, an older boy named James, is a tentative, cautionary look at the road humanity is heading down. And a warning to those of us who look to science as the cure for what makes us human in the first place. Free will. This is the story of James' fight to take back his free will, to regain his entrance into society as a normal "civilian" and to tear apart the corrupted Goodhouse system, once and for all.
I highly recommend experiencing this novel as an audiobook. The narration was incredibly well paced and though I'd never heard anything read by Will Damron before, I was really impressed with how well he conveyed James' evolution from confused and fearful student to eventual unsung-hero. A great match between reader and content.
4 Stars: Strongly recommended to readers who enjoy being warned away from an inevitable and unwelcome future
Audio: 10.8 hrs, narrated by Will Damron
Publisher: FSG
Released: September 2014
Science will be man's downfall. We are getting too smart for our own good and it will be the end of us.
In Peyton Marshall's near-future dystopian novel Goodhouse, we have discovered the genes that predict criminality. Believed to be passed down from parent to child, all male children born to convicted parents are tested at a young age for these genetic markers. If they test positive, they are taken away to Goodhouses - part boarding school, part prison - where they are locked away and trained how to be "right thinking" members of society by their 18th birthday.
The problem with this? Well, for starters, the genetic coding seems to only detect criminality in boys. Not girls. So we're only in a position to attempt correction or rehabilitation on a portion of our population. To that I say, if you can't go big, you might as well go home. Throw the friggen towel in. The battle was lost before it even began. Talk about unfair. In other cultures and countries being born a boy meant a life of privilege.But not anymore. Turn up positive for those tell-tale genes and all of your rights are stripped from you in the blink of an eye. By the end of this century, you'd be better off born a girl.
However, after hearing about all the shit that goes on behind the gates and walls of those Goodhouses, you'd think that the proctors and teachers were actually trying to break, instead of heal, those poor young boys. Paired up in dormitories, as you might be during your freshmen year of college, the boys are issued new names and these neat little GPS chips - surgically placed under the skin near their bellies - that broadcast where you are, where you've been, and what you've been doing. If you fail to follow a rule, or report to your class or dorm room late, or you back-talk a class leader or proctor, you and your roommate are issued demerits. Yup. Both of you. Nothing like pitting you and your bestie against each other and creating a stressful, hostile situation, right? Hell, to sweeten the pot, not only do those demerits cause conflict among roommates once you earn them, those demerits also weigh against your statuses. Ultimately, you want to be a Level 1. That means you're top-notch. You behave yourself and abide by all the rules. When you graduate from Goodhouse at a level 1, you're guaranteed to return to society with all the privileges and responsibilities of a normal "civilian".
Needless to say, Goodhouses are breeding grounds for some wicked fighting and mistreatment. An entire school, populated by frustrated, confused, brainwashed teenaged boys with mouths full of hate and fists of fury.... nah, we never predicted THAT would go bad, did we? As if they needed any more provocation, Class leaders are allowed to torture and torment their peers, right in front of teachers and proctors, without repercussion. And the only way to unseat a Class Leader is to challenge them in a fight. Win the fight, and you're the new Class Leader. Lose, and... well... it could be confinement for you at the worst, or a boatload of demerits at the best.
Oh, and did I mention that there's this crazy religious group called The Zero's who view the Goodhouses and all those who live within its walls as abominations? And they torch the buildings and students, setting purifying fires to purge the world of these miscreants? And some of them have worked their way into the system and function as Goodhouse staff, working their evil from the inside out?
Marshall's novel, written from the pov of one of the students, an older boy named James, is a tentative, cautionary look at the road humanity is heading down. And a warning to those of us who look to science as the cure for what makes us human in the first place. Free will. This is the story of James' fight to take back his free will, to regain his entrance into society as a normal "civilian" and to tear apart the corrupted Goodhouse system, once and for all.
I highly recommend experiencing this novel as an audiobook. The narration was incredibly well paced and though I'd never heard anything read by Will Damron before, I was really impressed with how well he conveyed James' evolution from confused and fearful student to eventual unsung-hero. A great match between reader and content.
July 1, 2014
To label this a "dystopian" novel isn't quite fair. Sure, the world the novel delineates isn't real -- it is set roughly 80 years in the future. But the book works most compellingly, I think, as a commentary on our contemporary world, and our increasingly harsh justice system, where juveniles -- especially juveniles of color -- are incarcerated in substandard living conditions, as a matter of routine.
It also raises a fundamental question about science -- and the use of science for the betterment of human life. Are technological advances misused by humanity, time and time again? Yes. Will the sequencing of genes, and the idea of genetic determinism someday be a part of that story of misuse? Quite plausibly. So, this is a speculative story about what happens, in that case.
It's also about religious fundamentalism -- the main question of our age. In a society that deteriorates, how quickly does the collapse of infrastructure lead to a rise in fundamentalist belief, and the constriction of liberty? The text asks this vital and important question.
But, most of all, what sets this book apart are the sentences. They are beautiful sentences. The prose tells the story -- the fast-paced, inventive story -- of James Goodhouse, a student in a reform school -- a Goodhouse -- where he, and other male children of violent felons, are being retrained to overcome their worst tendencies. James is the only survivor from an attack at his previous school, and he has been transferred to a new, bigger school -- and this is when we meet him.
Probably the most arresting element of the book is something technical and unusually skillful: Its use of flashback. By the time we get the story of the attack, in its entirety, it is nearly page 70. Marshall has held onto this information carefully, alluding to it, and when we get it -- it adds depth and weight to the predicament James is in. It shows us just how much he's had to endure, and it makes our empathy flare for him. The writing soars, here -- and the dialogue is folded seamlessly into the prose, making it come alive in a way that you rarely see.
Below is my favorite excerpt:
*
We expected to see boys flooding the yard below. I expected to see my friends lined up in rows but instead, the yard was dotted with men in black jackets and red balaclavas. Bodies—proctors, mostly but some students—lay unmoving on the lawn. It took us a moment to process it all. The snow at the base of the building had melted. Ash floated in the air, little black flecks like crows against a stormy sky.
“I’m not going down there,” Ian said.
“We have to,” I said. The smoke was getting heavier. It was hard to breathe even with the window open.
“Follow me.” I told him to put his feet where I did and then I was on the ledge, trying to dig my fingers into the rotten molding, usually soft enough to get a grip, but tonight, frozen and slippery. Ian kept grabbing for me and I moved away from him, afraid he’d knock me loose.
“Wait,” he said. “You’re going too fast.”
“Just do what I do,” I said.
We crept towards the corner of the building where the decorative edging had been cut to look like stone—and the pattern created a series of hand and foot holds. As we descended, we passed several open windows, one of which was broken—the safety glass bulging in its frame. A single limp and disembodied arm had been wedged through the four-inch opening.
Purifying fire. This is what the Zeros preached. We’d all read Matthew 13—the parable of the weeds. We all knew that the Zeros used this—this single biblical chapter—as the foundation of their doctrine, their justification for the use of fire. In the parable, an enemy has sown weeds among a farmer’s wheat but Jesus tells the farmer to wait. He tells him not to risk pulling out the weeds, not to risk damaging the crop. It’s only when everything has grown—when everything has been safely harvested—that the weeds must be bundled together and burned. This was, the Zeros said, the word of God. This was his truth.
*
Much happens to James over the course of this novel. He falls in love. He is a guinea pig in a clinical study. He tries to escape. The plot is quite complex, fast-paced, exciting, and well-constructed.
I wanted to also note something else... Something interesting is happening, this year, with books that are seen to be dystopian. More and more, men's novels of "dystopian" fiction are being hailed as "important" books, while women's novels are being relegated to secondary status. Clearly they are derivative, the reviews go. Clearly they are part of a genre. I think this is part of the same issue we've been grappling with for years in the writing world: sexism in the review culture, so deeply buried that it sometimes can't even be seen. Tricky stuff.
But this novel is so ceaselessly creative and inventive that it will rise above all of this.
What a book.
Brava!
It also raises a fundamental question about science -- and the use of science for the betterment of human life. Are technological advances misused by humanity, time and time again? Yes. Will the sequencing of genes, and the idea of genetic determinism someday be a part of that story of misuse? Quite plausibly. So, this is a speculative story about what happens, in that case.
It's also about religious fundamentalism -- the main question of our age. In a society that deteriorates, how quickly does the collapse of infrastructure lead to a rise in fundamentalist belief, and the constriction of liberty? The text asks this vital and important question.
But, most of all, what sets this book apart are the sentences. They are beautiful sentences. The prose tells the story -- the fast-paced, inventive story -- of James Goodhouse, a student in a reform school -- a Goodhouse -- where he, and other male children of violent felons, are being retrained to overcome their worst tendencies. James is the only survivor from an attack at his previous school, and he has been transferred to a new, bigger school -- and this is when we meet him.
Probably the most arresting element of the book is something technical and unusually skillful: Its use of flashback. By the time we get the story of the attack, in its entirety, it is nearly page 70. Marshall has held onto this information carefully, alluding to it, and when we get it -- it adds depth and weight to the predicament James is in. It shows us just how much he's had to endure, and it makes our empathy flare for him. The writing soars, here -- and the dialogue is folded seamlessly into the prose, making it come alive in a way that you rarely see.
Below is my favorite excerpt:
*
We expected to see boys flooding the yard below. I expected to see my friends lined up in rows but instead, the yard was dotted with men in black jackets and red balaclavas. Bodies—proctors, mostly but some students—lay unmoving on the lawn. It took us a moment to process it all. The snow at the base of the building had melted. Ash floated in the air, little black flecks like crows against a stormy sky.
“I’m not going down there,” Ian said.
“We have to,” I said. The smoke was getting heavier. It was hard to breathe even with the window open.
“Follow me.” I told him to put his feet where I did and then I was on the ledge, trying to dig my fingers into the rotten molding, usually soft enough to get a grip, but tonight, frozen and slippery. Ian kept grabbing for me and I moved away from him, afraid he’d knock me loose.
“Wait,” he said. “You’re going too fast.”
“Just do what I do,” I said.
We crept towards the corner of the building where the decorative edging had been cut to look like stone—and the pattern created a series of hand and foot holds. As we descended, we passed several open windows, one of which was broken—the safety glass bulging in its frame. A single limp and disembodied arm had been wedged through the four-inch opening.
Purifying fire. This is what the Zeros preached. We’d all read Matthew 13—the parable of the weeds. We all knew that the Zeros used this—this single biblical chapter—as the foundation of their doctrine, their justification for the use of fire. In the parable, an enemy has sown weeds among a farmer’s wheat but Jesus tells the farmer to wait. He tells him not to risk pulling out the weeds, not to risk damaging the crop. It’s only when everything has grown—when everything has been safely harvested—that the weeds must be bundled together and burned. This was, the Zeros said, the word of God. This was his truth.
*
Much happens to James over the course of this novel. He falls in love. He is a guinea pig in a clinical study. He tries to escape. The plot is quite complex, fast-paced, exciting, and well-constructed.
I wanted to also note something else... Something interesting is happening, this year, with books that are seen to be dystopian. More and more, men's novels of "dystopian" fiction are being hailed as "important" books, while women's novels are being relegated to secondary status. Clearly they are derivative, the reviews go. Clearly they are part of a genre. I think this is part of the same issue we've been grappling with for years in the writing world: sexism in the review culture, so deeply buried that it sometimes can't even be seen. Tricky stuff.
But this novel is so ceaselessly creative and inventive that it will rise above all of this.
What a book.
Brava!
January 10, 2016
The Review Can Also Be Found Here:: https://thefictionalhangoutsite.wordp...
Only my second read of 2016 is this young adult dystopia that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while but due to there being so many other books to read I’ve never really gotten around to doing so, however, thankfully, when I did eventually start reading Peyton Marshall’s Goodhouse, it wasn’t a disappointment. Whilst it wasn’t the most memorable read ever, it was a good thought provoking one that questions what happens when we know people have criminal blood in their genes, because they’re descended from someone who has committed a crime in the past. They’re sentenced to the Goodhouse, given different names and new purposes from an early age, and they know no other life. It’s not quite a dystopia because the world outside the Goodhouse is still fairly recognisable, after all, it’s only at the end of the 21st century in America, not in say, Panem or a ravaged wasteland, and offers an interesting read that is pretty quick to get through.
The main character that we are introduced to is James, which isn’t his real name, but the name he was given by the Goodhouse. He’s one of the boys with genes deemed impure, which puts a target on his back from groups like the Holy Redeemer’s Church of Purity, who believe that they should be destroyed. However, as James digs closer to the truth he soon learns that the Zeroes are not the only threat that he has to overcome. It’s an interesting story that develops well, keeping the dramatis personae short so that we spent most of the time with James, but also with the likes of James’ cellmate, Owen, a painter, and Bethany, who is the lead female character, and the only other real main protagonist apart from James. She acts as a wildcard, not following the rules and questioning everything that James knows.
The decision to explore different people’s attitudes to the Goodhouse and what goes on inside its walls really works. The religious group are fanatical, almost reminiscent of the Purifiers from the X-Men comics and to a lesser extent, the Guilty Remnant from The Leftovers (from both Tom Perotta's novel & HBO's fantastic television show). They are always lurking in the background and targeting the Goodhouses across America, and show the reader how religion can be corrupted and how it isn’t necessarily a perfect tool.
There are a few problems with Goodhouse however. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and you’ll have seen the plot so many times before in movies. There are echoes of George Orwell’s 1984 and Michael Bay’s The Island (which itself isn’t the most original movie ever), and borrows several key themes from novels or films that we’ve encountered before. There’s nothing new or fresh about James and Bethany either, who lack the development that they need to really leave an impression on the reader.
But that’s not to say the book is bad, though. Peyton Marshall’s Goodhouse is handled well, and there are worse novels out there. The pace is solid, the prose is well written and the ideas are executed mostly solidly. It’s just that it does nothing to really stand out from the pack.
VERDICT: 7/10
Only my second read of 2016 is this young adult dystopia that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while but due to there being so many other books to read I’ve never really gotten around to doing so, however, thankfully, when I did eventually start reading Peyton Marshall’s Goodhouse, it wasn’t a disappointment. Whilst it wasn’t the most memorable read ever, it was a good thought provoking one that questions what happens when we know people have criminal blood in their genes, because they’re descended from someone who has committed a crime in the past. They’re sentenced to the Goodhouse, given different names and new purposes from an early age, and they know no other life. It’s not quite a dystopia because the world outside the Goodhouse is still fairly recognisable, after all, it’s only at the end of the 21st century in America, not in say, Panem or a ravaged wasteland, and offers an interesting read that is pretty quick to get through.
The main character that we are introduced to is James, which isn’t his real name, but the name he was given by the Goodhouse. He’s one of the boys with genes deemed impure, which puts a target on his back from groups like the Holy Redeemer’s Church of Purity, who believe that they should be destroyed. However, as James digs closer to the truth he soon learns that the Zeroes are not the only threat that he has to overcome. It’s an interesting story that develops well, keeping the dramatis personae short so that we spent most of the time with James, but also with the likes of James’ cellmate, Owen, a painter, and Bethany, who is the lead female character, and the only other real main protagonist apart from James. She acts as a wildcard, not following the rules and questioning everything that James knows.
The decision to explore different people’s attitudes to the Goodhouse and what goes on inside its walls really works. The religious group are fanatical, almost reminiscent of the Purifiers from the X-Men comics and to a lesser extent, the Guilty Remnant from The Leftovers (from both Tom Perotta's novel & HBO's fantastic television show). They are always lurking in the background and targeting the Goodhouses across America, and show the reader how religion can be corrupted and how it isn’t necessarily a perfect tool.
There are a few problems with Goodhouse however. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and you’ll have seen the plot so many times before in movies. There are echoes of George Orwell’s 1984 and Michael Bay’s The Island (which itself isn’t the most original movie ever), and borrows several key themes from novels or films that we’ve encountered before. There’s nothing new or fresh about James and Bethany either, who lack the development that they need to really leave an impression on the reader.
But that’s not to say the book is bad, though. Peyton Marshall’s Goodhouse is handled well, and there are worse novels out there. The pace is solid, the prose is well written and the ideas are executed mostly solidly. It’s just that it does nothing to really stand out from the pack.
VERDICT: 7/10
November 20, 2014
Set in the near future, this novel has teenage James Goodhouse as its central character. James lives in a corrective school for boys with criminal genes. Genetic profiling is meant to prevent crime; so these boys are all taught to control the possible criminal tendencies which lurk within them. However, the Goodhouse is, in reality, a brutal and oppressive place where class leaders and proctors abuse their charges under the watchful eyes of Headmaster Tanner.
James has been in the Goodhouse system since he was three and was given a new name. His last school burnt down and, gradually, the story of what happened that night unfolds. However, when we first meet James he is going to a Community Day with a family, to help integrate him into society. During that day he meets Bethany from whom he, inadvertently, takes a hair barrette. This ‘theft’ is uncovered on his return and leads to his future plans being altered. He had hoped to escape the system – had even dreamt of a job, a marriage license, an apartment… Instead, he finds love, is involved in medical experiments and learns the truth about the system he has grown up in.
This is a very interesting tale of a possible future world in which boys are criminalised by their family background. It also has interesting parallels with corrective institutions in which young boys are imprisoned and would be a good choice for book clubs, with lots to discuss. This is a future we can easily identify with, full of gated communities, tent cities, religious zealots and fear of the unknown. The author makes James, and his past, believable and sympathetic. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
James has been in the Goodhouse system since he was three and was given a new name. His last school burnt down and, gradually, the story of what happened that night unfolds. However, when we first meet James he is going to a Community Day with a family, to help integrate him into society. During that day he meets Bethany from whom he, inadvertently, takes a hair barrette. This ‘theft’ is uncovered on his return and leads to his future plans being altered. He had hoped to escape the system – had even dreamt of a job, a marriage license, an apartment… Instead, he finds love, is involved in medical experiments and learns the truth about the system he has grown up in.
This is a very interesting tale of a possible future world in which boys are criminalised by their family background. It also has interesting parallels with corrective institutions in which young boys are imprisoned and would be a good choice for book clubs, with lots to discuss. This is a future we can easily identify with, full of gated communities, tent cities, religious zealots and fear of the unknown. The author makes James, and his past, believable and sympathetic. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
October 29, 2015
Goodhouse
Mysterious Book Report No 216
by John Dwaine McKenna
This week is Halloween and the last of our first-ever Freak-Fest, celebrating novels with creepy characters, angels, demons, or things that creak, sneak and chomp in the dark of the night. Send us your thoughts—social media, snail mail or eee mail—let us know if you liked it or not and why . . . maybe we’ll do it again.
After all the supernatural mayhem of the past four weeks, we’re dialing it down to close out FF#1 by reading a thought provoking Sci-Fi novel with the ironic name, Goodhouse, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26.00, 320 pages, ISBN 978-0-374-16562-8) by Peyton Marshall. It’s partially based on the true story of a nineteenth-century reform school . . . The Preston School of Industry in Ione, California . . . a facility that closed on June 2, 2011 after operating continuously for 117 years and affecting thousands of lives.
Goodhouse is a stunning debut that’s entertaining, imaginative and intensely literate. It’s a novel “You don’t want to end, but can’t stop reading”. It’s a story that takes place in a near-future United States where, at the end of the twenty-first century, all the male children of convicted felons are tested for a certain set of genetic markers . . . that indicate they’ll become criminals. Those who test positive are made wards of the state, taken forcefully from their homes and sent to “Goodhouse” campuses, where they’re taught to reform their darkest thoughts and impulses before being allowed to rejoin society. Those who cannot be rehabilitated are sent to prison, where they never leave.
Goodhouse campuses are found all across the country. They’re part reform school, part prison, and completely savage—a place where each boy is forced to do hard labor in one or more prison-type industries—where every boy has to fight just to survive. Now, a radical religious group called the Holy Redeemer’s Church of Purity, known as the Zeros by the inmates, is trying to destroy the Goodhouse facilities and purify the incarcerated boys with fire . . . by burning them alive.
The story is told in the first person by James Goodhouse (the boys are all given new names at intake and forced to adopt Goodhouse as their surnames which forever brands them as potential evil-doers ) a seventeen year-old transfer student and sole survivor of a Zero attack that burned his dormitory, and immolated all of his classmates. Sent on an off-campus release-time work project, James meets Bethany, a beautiful, brilliant and fragile girl his own age who has had a heart transplant. She wants to rescue him from certain death at the hands of her father, the chief medical officer at the Ione Goodhouse. He’s conducting a sinister and illegal research project using the inmates as subjects. Bethany’s father, Dr. Cleveland, is hoping to make billions of dollars if his research project succeeds.
Goodhouse, with it’s real life connections, examines questions of identity, free will and human endurance, as well as the ethics of for-profit prisons. It’s an exciting novel that is intellectually stimulating, thought provoking and enjoyable reading from a bright young author who’s clearly a rising star in the literary world.
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Mysterious Book Report No 216
by John Dwaine McKenna
This week is Halloween and the last of our first-ever Freak-Fest, celebrating novels with creepy characters, angels, demons, or things that creak, sneak and chomp in the dark of the night. Send us your thoughts—social media, snail mail or eee mail—let us know if you liked it or not and why . . . maybe we’ll do it again.
After all the supernatural mayhem of the past four weeks, we’re dialing it down to close out FF#1 by reading a thought provoking Sci-Fi novel with the ironic name, Goodhouse, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26.00, 320 pages, ISBN 978-0-374-16562-8) by Peyton Marshall. It’s partially based on the true story of a nineteenth-century reform school . . . The Preston School of Industry in Ione, California . . . a facility that closed on June 2, 2011 after operating continuously for 117 years and affecting thousands of lives.
Goodhouse is a stunning debut that’s entertaining, imaginative and intensely literate. It’s a novel “You don’t want to end, but can’t stop reading”. It’s a story that takes place in a near-future United States where, at the end of the twenty-first century, all the male children of convicted felons are tested for a certain set of genetic markers . . . that indicate they’ll become criminals. Those who test positive are made wards of the state, taken forcefully from their homes and sent to “Goodhouse” campuses, where they’re taught to reform their darkest thoughts and impulses before being allowed to rejoin society. Those who cannot be rehabilitated are sent to prison, where they never leave.
Goodhouse campuses are found all across the country. They’re part reform school, part prison, and completely savage—a place where each boy is forced to do hard labor in one or more prison-type industries—where every boy has to fight just to survive. Now, a radical religious group called the Holy Redeemer’s Church of Purity, known as the Zeros by the inmates, is trying to destroy the Goodhouse facilities and purify the incarcerated boys with fire . . . by burning them alive.
The story is told in the first person by James Goodhouse (the boys are all given new names at intake and forced to adopt Goodhouse as their surnames which forever brands them as potential evil-doers ) a seventeen year-old transfer student and sole survivor of a Zero attack that burned his dormitory, and immolated all of his classmates. Sent on an off-campus release-time work project, James meets Bethany, a beautiful, brilliant and fragile girl his own age who has had a heart transplant. She wants to rescue him from certain death at the hands of her father, the chief medical officer at the Ione Goodhouse. He’s conducting a sinister and illegal research project using the inmates as subjects. Bethany’s father, Dr. Cleveland, is hoping to make billions of dollars if his research project succeeds.
Goodhouse, with it’s real life connections, examines questions of identity, free will and human endurance, as well as the ethics of for-profit prisons. It’s an exciting novel that is intellectually stimulating, thought provoking and enjoyable reading from a bright young author who’s clearly a rising star in the literary world.
Like the review? The greatest compliment you can give is to like us and share it with others on Facebook, and follow us on Goodreads, Pinterest or LinkedIn.
http://www.Facebook.com/JohnDwaineMcK...
http://www.Goodreads.com/JohnDwaineMc...
October 21, 2015
For lack of a better way to say this... this is not a very good first novel. It's sort of an interesting concept - in the future, the government (?) identifies genetic markers that predispose men to violence and separates males as children from society into homes called Goodhouses to brainwash them with meditation techniques and demerits. I say it's sort of an interesting concept, because it's really surprising that (a) if they (and by they I mean The Man) could detect genetic markers, it seems weird to test the general population at age 3. Why not detect the gene in utero to abort the children and not have to waste taxpayers' dollars on raising thousands (? - again I remain unsure as this is a very murky novel) of children to adulthood, an expensive undertaking!
It's also kind of laughable how they try to reform the children. They teach them breathing and meditation techniques. And... ? Is that it? To combat their destructive behaviors? There also really isn't a broader conversation in this novel about the genetic testing (which I find concerning for the YA reader). Is this a smart way to prevent violence, rape, murder? Is this moral? This is just the way the world is, according to Marshall, and we don't really need to think about it too much.
Along that line, does anyone really know how the Goodhouse works? Sometimes James, our main character, would say, oh yeah, I had history class. But it seemed like the boys were mostly conscripted into work of some kind (factory work? general maintenance for the Goodhouse? art, if you were that one lucky bastard who was talented? --- but wait a second, how did that kid ever figure out he was good at art? Goodhouse doesn't really seem like a school so much as a prison).
It's a confusing novel, as I said. The characters' motivations are particularly confusing. Bethany is the sole girl in our novel and, thus, our main character's love interest. She's got skills, thank god, because how would this novel progress without them. She's handy with machines and hacking, so she breaks James out occasionally for make-out sessions in the rat-infested kitchen. Aww.
Marshall explained to me that Bethany saw James on TV discussing a fire at his previous institution, and she fell in love with him, so she arranged for him to hang out at her house on Community Day (some sort of weird field trip where they test the boys out on an unsuspecting public) and then she purposely got kicked out so she could hang out with her dad, a doctor at a Goodhouse, but really so she could hang out with James. Ooookay....
It doesn't really seem to be plausible... and P.S. she's kind of a stalker. There's so many ways I could tell you all this doesn't make sense (so we keep these predisposed violent boys from the community, but let teenage girls roam the campus for no apparent reason than to make moon eyes at some boy?), but I feel too tired to point out every flaw in this book. It doesn't make much sense, any way you look at it.
It's also kind of laughable how they try to reform the children. They teach them breathing and meditation techniques. And... ? Is that it? To combat their destructive behaviors? There also really isn't a broader conversation in this novel about the genetic testing (which I find concerning for the YA reader). Is this a smart way to prevent violence, rape, murder? Is this moral? This is just the way the world is, according to Marshall, and we don't really need to think about it too much.
Along that line, does anyone really know how the Goodhouse works? Sometimes James, our main character, would say, oh yeah, I had history class. But it seemed like the boys were mostly conscripted into work of some kind (factory work? general maintenance for the Goodhouse? art, if you were that one lucky bastard who was talented? --- but wait a second, how did that kid ever figure out he was good at art? Goodhouse doesn't really seem like a school so much as a prison).
It's a confusing novel, as I said. The characters' motivations are particularly confusing. Bethany is the sole girl in our novel and, thus, our main character's love interest. She's got skills, thank god, because how would this novel progress without them. She's handy with machines and hacking, so she breaks James out occasionally for make-out sessions in the rat-infested kitchen. Aww.
Marshall explained to me that Bethany saw James on TV discussing a fire at his previous institution, and she fell in love with him, so she arranged for him to hang out at her house on Community Day (some sort of weird field trip where they test the boys out on an unsuspecting public) and then she purposely got kicked out so she could hang out with her dad, a doctor at a Goodhouse, but really so she could hang out with James. Ooookay....
It doesn't really seem to be plausible... and P.S. she's kind of a stalker. There's so many ways I could tell you all this doesn't make sense (so we keep these predisposed violent boys from the community, but let teenage girls roam the campus for no apparent reason than to make moon eyes at some boy?), but I feel too tired to point out every flaw in this book. It doesn't make much sense, any way you look at it.
December 6, 2014
I am a sucker for near-future fiction where things have gone wrong and are getting worse. But this is an exceptional addition to the genre, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
March 13, 2015
Could not put it down! An intriguing read. As a person living in Oregon, I like the local references—they feel like natural pinpoints on the map of the story, not superimposed as sometimes happens when an author mixes a fictional future with a familiar/present place. I admire Ms. Marshall's natural, compelling writing ability... and would not be surprised (or disappointed!) if this wonderful novel became a movie one day. Well done!
February 11, 2015
Don't mis this thrilling book. You could call it a 1st person, distopian, coming of age story, but the book goes beyond genre. The authentically drawn main character, will pull you in and won't let you go. The book has so much heart, I found it hard to put down, and the tension and suspense Marshall creates with her storytelling will keep you engrossed to the very last page.
November 13, 2014
Pretty fast paced kept me turning pages, but there was just too many details that didn't add up or make sense.
March 13, 2019
Honestly, found it kinda hard to follow in places and didn't really care what happened to anyone... Just not great.
May 20, 2024
CAN GENETICS PREDICT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR? SOME THINK SO, IN THIS DYSTOPIAN NOVEL
Dystopian fiction seeks to illuminate the consequences of the bad choices we make today. Goodhouse follows in this tradition by extrapolating into the late 21st Century one of America’s most troublesome present-day realities. It satirizes our counterproductive criminal justice system, which does a great job training young people for lives of crime. As author Peyton Marshall reveals in the acknowledgments, she modeled the “Goodhouse” where most of the action takes place in her novel on the notorious Preston Youth Correctional Facility, a juvenile rehabilitation center closed by the State of California only in 2011. The book is a great example of dystopian fiction.
A NATIONWIDE NETWORK OF CRIMINAL BREEDING-GROUNDS
In Peyton Marshall’s dark-hued future America, the country is engaged in an endless war overseas while on the brink of civil war at home. On one side are the officials who maintain the nationwide network of Goodhouses. There, young men tagged as having genetically-determined criiminal tendencies are raised from an early age in draconian conditions sure to bring out the worst in them. (“There was no Goodhouse equivalent for girls. The same markers in women were not predictive of criminal behavior . . .”) On the other side are the revolutionary Zeros, who stage massive attacks to annihilate the Goodhouses and all those who live within them because “[t]hey wanted to purify, to cleanse. They didn’t believe in reforming us.”
A HAUNTINGLY FAMILIAR ENVIRONMENT
The novel tells the story of “James Goodhouse,” But that’s not his name. The system has suppressed his birth name and origins like those of all his thousands of fellows. And so too is the trajectory he follows from the equivalent of a low-security youth facility where he was a model citizen to what can only be described as a prison. The Goodhouse shelters a totalitarian mini-society where James is physically and psychologically abused by the former inmates now in positions of power over him.
Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Most of America’s prisons operate just like this today.
When James receives a rare opportunity to leave the Goodhouse for a day, he meets Bethany. She is a gravely ill young woman who lives with her mother outside the walls in a home that represents an idyllic world for him. Their awkward relationship unfolds as the Goodhouse staff increasingly dehumanizes him. Meanwhile, the violent clash between the system and the Zeros gathers force.
Goodhouse works—as a cautionary tale, a novel of suspense, and a compelling read. It’s a terrific example of dystopian fiction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peyton Marshall is a graduate of Reed College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for 2022-23. As Google Books notes, “Goodhouse is partly inspired by her research into the Preston School of Industry, a juvenile reform school founded in California in 1890. Its aim was to elevate the minds of young offenders and provide them with job skills that would keep them out of adult prison. The memoirs of former studens evidence a much more brutal experience.” Marshall lives in Oregon with her husband, who is also a writer.
Dystopian fiction seeks to illuminate the consequences of the bad choices we make today. Goodhouse follows in this tradition by extrapolating into the late 21st Century one of America’s most troublesome present-day realities. It satirizes our counterproductive criminal justice system, which does a great job training young people for lives of crime. As author Peyton Marshall reveals in the acknowledgments, she modeled the “Goodhouse” where most of the action takes place in her novel on the notorious Preston Youth Correctional Facility, a juvenile rehabilitation center closed by the State of California only in 2011. The book is a great example of dystopian fiction.
A NATIONWIDE NETWORK OF CRIMINAL BREEDING-GROUNDS
In Peyton Marshall’s dark-hued future America, the country is engaged in an endless war overseas while on the brink of civil war at home. On one side are the officials who maintain the nationwide network of Goodhouses. There, young men tagged as having genetically-determined criiminal tendencies are raised from an early age in draconian conditions sure to bring out the worst in them. (“There was no Goodhouse equivalent for girls. The same markers in women were not predictive of criminal behavior . . .”) On the other side are the revolutionary Zeros, who stage massive attacks to annihilate the Goodhouses and all those who live within them because “[t]hey wanted to purify, to cleanse. They didn’t believe in reforming us.”
A HAUNTINGLY FAMILIAR ENVIRONMENT
The novel tells the story of “James Goodhouse,” But that’s not his name. The system has suppressed his birth name and origins like those of all his thousands of fellows. And so too is the trajectory he follows from the equivalent of a low-security youth facility where he was a model citizen to what can only be described as a prison. The Goodhouse shelters a totalitarian mini-society where James is physically and psychologically abused by the former inmates now in positions of power over him.
Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Most of America’s prisons operate just like this today.
When James receives a rare opportunity to leave the Goodhouse for a day, he meets Bethany. She is a gravely ill young woman who lives with her mother outside the walls in a home that represents an idyllic world for him. Their awkward relationship unfolds as the Goodhouse staff increasingly dehumanizes him. Meanwhile, the violent clash between the system and the Zeros gathers force.
Goodhouse works—as a cautionary tale, a novel of suspense, and a compelling read. It’s a terrific example of dystopian fiction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peyton Marshall is a graduate of Reed College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for 2022-23. As Google Books notes, “Goodhouse is partly inspired by her research into the Preston School of Industry, a juvenile reform school founded in California in 1890. Its aim was to elevate the minds of young offenders and provide them with job skills that would keep them out of adult prison. The memoirs of former studens evidence a much more brutal experience.” Marshall lives in Oregon with her husband, who is also a writer.
December 3, 2014
So another Dystopian tale then, one that takes as its premise a future world where the "criminal" gene has been identified and all male children who have it are put into the care of the government - within a "GoodHouse" and "trained" to be model citizens. An intriguing idea for sure and one that is not that far beyond the realms of possibility.
I really enjoyed this one, James is an interesting main protagonist, trying his best to keep his head down and "graduate" without incident - but the GoodHouse is a melting pot of teen angst with no real outlet, added to that not everyone has their best interests at heart and so the scene is set for a great tale.
This has a great flow to it and keeps you involved all the way and there are some interesting and thought provoking themes explored here - not only of nature v nurture but also the gender divide - in this world it is only the boys who are separated out, not the girls. When James meets a girl, Bethany, during a trip to the "outside" this sets off a chain of events that is fascinating and very addictive.
There are several plot strands - what is going on within the house itself, the relationships the boys form and their secret ways of communicating and letting off steam. My favourite part of the story involved James and his relationship with room mate Owen, who was himself a rather enigmatic character who was very appealing. Then there is the outside and how the "Inmates" are viewed, the political shenanigans that keep people informed without actually telling them anything and, of course, the religious fanatics who believe that if you have the gene you should simply burn...
Overall then, a lot going on but Peyton Marshall manages to hold it all together in a very gripping way, there are some very exciting moments and some very emotional ones, overall a most terrific read. If I had one small bugbear it was that I felt the ending was slightly rushed - a lot of information in a small part of the book - it felt like perhaps there was meant to be a sequel but then it changed to a standalone, so I will be interested to find out if there are or were any more books planned in this world.
Some great writing and a very intelligent take on the idea of genetic make up influencing how we are treated, I would definitely recommend it for fans of Dystopian reads.
Happy Reading Folks!
I really enjoyed this one, James is an interesting main protagonist, trying his best to keep his head down and "graduate" without incident - but the GoodHouse is a melting pot of teen angst with no real outlet, added to that not everyone has their best interests at heart and so the scene is set for a great tale.
This has a great flow to it and keeps you involved all the way and there are some interesting and thought provoking themes explored here - not only of nature v nurture but also the gender divide - in this world it is only the boys who are separated out, not the girls. When James meets a girl, Bethany, during a trip to the "outside" this sets off a chain of events that is fascinating and very addictive.
There are several plot strands - what is going on within the house itself, the relationships the boys form and their secret ways of communicating and letting off steam. My favourite part of the story involved James and his relationship with room mate Owen, who was himself a rather enigmatic character who was very appealing. Then there is the outside and how the "Inmates" are viewed, the political shenanigans that keep people informed without actually telling them anything and, of course, the religious fanatics who believe that if you have the gene you should simply burn...
Overall then, a lot going on but Peyton Marshall manages to hold it all together in a very gripping way, there are some very exciting moments and some very emotional ones, overall a most terrific read. If I had one small bugbear it was that I felt the ending was slightly rushed - a lot of information in a small part of the book - it felt like perhaps there was meant to be a sequel but then it changed to a standalone, so I will be interested to find out if there are or were any more books planned in this world.
Some great writing and a very intelligent take on the idea of genetic make up influencing how we are treated, I would definitely recommend it for fans of Dystopian reads.
Happy Reading Folks!
October 21, 2014
This book is set in the western US near the end of this century. In this future version of America a set of genetic markers have been associated with felonious behavior. When a man is convicted of a felony his sons are tested for these genetic markers. A male child who tests positive is placed into a strict and often brutal reform school, called a Goodhouse, with the intent of modifying their future behavior. Seventeen year old James is one of the survivors of a fire at a Goodhouse in LaPine, Oregon and the primary character in this tale. He has been transferred to another Goodhouse in Ione, California, which is where he is as the story begins. James as a recent transfer has few friends in Ione. He is vigilant in his new environment and knows to try to avoid the many dangers that are a part of life within the Goodhouse, but he also knows that there is an even greater danger outside the compound. He knows that the fire in LaPine was deliberately set by a radical religious group, the Holy Redeemer’s Church of Purity. These zealots are called Zeros by the Goodhouse boys. The Zeros use fire to purify society. They preach Matthew 13—the parable of the weeds, where the weeds are gathered together and burned after the harvest and to the Zeros the Goodhouse boys are the weeds.
Marshall has created a unique and scary dystopian society that has allowed fear to overtake freedom. In the society depicted here an individual is judged, not by what he has done but by what he might do. The time honored American concept of innocent until proven guilty seems totally forgotten. The basic concept behind the Goodhouse system is much like creating a gelding from a stallion or a steer from a bull. A preemptive action is taken that will eliminate violent behavior later on, but we are talking about people here not animals. The tension is pervasive in this novel and makes it hard to put down. I found myself staying up late in order to finish it. If you like dystopian thrillers, give GOODHOUSE a try. You won’t regret it.
Marshall has created a unique and scary dystopian society that has allowed fear to overtake freedom. In the society depicted here an individual is judged, not by what he has done but by what he might do. The time honored American concept of innocent until proven guilty seems totally forgotten. The basic concept behind the Goodhouse system is much like creating a gelding from a stallion or a steer from a bull. A preemptive action is taken that will eliminate violent behavior later on, but we are talking about people here not animals. The tension is pervasive in this novel and makes it hard to put down. I found myself staying up late in order to finish it. If you like dystopian thrillers, give GOODHOUSE a try. You won’t regret it.
February 1, 2022
Grabbed this book randomly off the shelves in the library and it looked like it had not been touched by a patron in its life. Naturally, I thought it best to determine if that neglect was warranted - it wasn't!
First of all, this book should have been in the teen section next to the likes of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. The dystopian storyline follows teen boys with certain genetic traits who wind up in some closed off society for the purpose of research - or something. This book has everything you would expect: A character who challenges the status quo, a sinister leader who operates in the shadows, and a the depiction of a future where free will is limited.
This book was fine regardless of the lofty summary (the cover needs to tone down the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comparisons). The writing was solid, the story held your attention long enough, and there was a cool development that I wanted more of.
I hoped the story would lean more into the very brief fighting ring plot and dive more into the Goodhouse society, if only to change the genre trajectory for a bit. As brutal as the book was, it could have reaped even more carnage by making the deaths personal. That's what made portions of The Hunger Games so good - the fact that people we came to identify with were battling for their lives and some failed. Mass destruction gives the reader nothing to grip onto. I'm not condoning death in literature, but it has a way of raising the stakes to great heights when done correctly.
First of all, this book should have been in the teen section next to the likes of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. The dystopian storyline follows teen boys with certain genetic traits who wind up in some closed off society for the purpose of research - or something. This book has everything you would expect: A character who challenges the status quo, a sinister leader who operates in the shadows, and a the depiction of a future where free will is limited.
This book was fine regardless of the lofty summary (the cover needs to tone down the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comparisons). The writing was solid, the story held your attention long enough, and there was a cool development that I wanted more of.
I hoped the story would lean more into the very brief fighting ring plot and dive more into the Goodhouse society, if only to change the genre trajectory for a bit. As brutal as the book was, it could have reaped even more carnage by making the deaths personal. That's what made portions of The Hunger Games so good - the fact that people we came to identify with were battling for their lives and some failed. Mass destruction gives the reader nothing to grip onto. I'm not condoning death in literature, but it has a way of raising the stakes to great heights when done correctly.
October 28, 2014
I think the reviews on this one are a bit low, perhaps we're hitting a point of reading fatigue with dystopian futures.
Marshall's first novel imagines a near future where boys who are determined by the state to have a genetic tendency toward violence or criminal behavior are shut into re-education facilities, but of course, as such facilities go, we quickly get a chicken-and-egg problem. Do the boys really have a tendency, or does their treatment as prisoners create anti-social tendencies? To make matters worse, an external group called the Zeros would like to go even further: they'd like the boys simply to be exterminated before they can create any problems. Our narrator James (all the boys are given the last name Goodhouse, after the private firm that runs the "schools" in which they are kept) has already survived the burning of another Goodhouse school before the novel even begins.
This is a sad story in the sense of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, in that some of the boys believe the criticism against them and don't trust themselves, or simply give into urges toward bad behavior. The people who are supposed to be rehabilitating the boys are also using them as a labor pool and as a population to try experimental drugs on. As the story begins, James meets a strange girl from the outside who gets under his skin. With her assistance, a plan to escape begins to foment in his mind, even as he's exposed to an even rougher world of adult detention centers.
There is perhaps a bit too much going on in this overstuffed novel, but Marshall juggles her many plot lines well. The pacing is good and the characters are interesting. Among a crowded field of dystopias, this is one that deserves your reading attention.
Marshall's first novel imagines a near future where boys who are determined by the state to have a genetic tendency toward violence or criminal behavior are shut into re-education facilities, but of course, as such facilities go, we quickly get a chicken-and-egg problem. Do the boys really have a tendency, or does their treatment as prisoners create anti-social tendencies? To make matters worse, an external group called the Zeros would like to go even further: they'd like the boys simply to be exterminated before they can create any problems. Our narrator James (all the boys are given the last name Goodhouse, after the private firm that runs the "schools" in which they are kept) has already survived the burning of another Goodhouse school before the novel even begins.
This is a sad story in the sense of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, in that some of the boys believe the criticism against them and don't trust themselves, or simply give into urges toward bad behavior. The people who are supposed to be rehabilitating the boys are also using them as a labor pool and as a population to try experimental drugs on. As the story begins, James meets a strange girl from the outside who gets under his skin. With her assistance, a plan to escape begins to foment in his mind, even as he's exposed to an even rougher world of adult detention centers.
There is perhaps a bit too much going on in this overstuffed novel, but Marshall juggles her many plot lines well. The pacing is good and the characters are interesting. Among a crowded field of dystopias, this is one that deserves your reading attention.
June 30, 2015
Imagine a future where you could pinpoint the genetic markers that determine a criminal. Now, imagine a time when the children of criminals who have this marker are placed into schools until their 18th birthdays in order to override their genetic predispositions. This, my friends, is the premise of Goodhouse by Peyton Marshall.
The novel follows James, one of these kids who is transferred to Goodhouse after his previous school was burned down by a radical group who thinks that these kids are a danger to society and need to be eliminated. Different from his counterparts in that he’s curious and skeptical, he befriends the daughter of one of the scientists, kicking off a fast-paced story that raises questions about science, humanity, dignity, and freedom of thought and action.
What drew me to the book is its premise, for attempting to predict violence based on genetics is a part of our ugly past, but it’s not a book that I would normally pick up. It’s also loosely based on a real school for boys, the Preston School of Industry, which is always interesting. That said, it’s hard to categorize this book – it’s not quite YA and it’s not quite dystopian/post-apocalyptic, but it does include elements of all three. This is worth mentioning because these are all features of books that I tend to avoid or dislike, but Marshall manages to blend them in a way that the book falls into none of the categories while also falling into all of them. So while it got a little weird at times (Bethany’s story arc was a little perplexing), the overall result was pretty fantastic.
For the full review, visit The Book Wheel.
The novel follows James, one of these kids who is transferred to Goodhouse after his previous school was burned down by a radical group who thinks that these kids are a danger to society and need to be eliminated. Different from his counterparts in that he’s curious and skeptical, he befriends the daughter of one of the scientists, kicking off a fast-paced story that raises questions about science, humanity, dignity, and freedom of thought and action.
What drew me to the book is its premise, for attempting to predict violence based on genetics is a part of our ugly past, but it’s not a book that I would normally pick up. It’s also loosely based on a real school for boys, the Preston School of Industry, which is always interesting. That said, it’s hard to categorize this book – it’s not quite YA and it’s not quite dystopian/post-apocalyptic, but it does include elements of all three. This is worth mentioning because these are all features of books that I tend to avoid or dislike, but Marshall manages to blend them in a way that the book falls into none of the categories while also falling into all of them. So while it got a little weird at times (Bethany’s story arc was a little perplexing), the overall result was pretty fantastic.
For the full review, visit The Book Wheel.
August 3, 2015
I bought this at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Minneapolis earlier this year, and wasn't able to read it until now. I must say I was worried since it was a work of literary fiction, but it was surprisingly incredible. One of the best books I have read-not only in that genre-but in a while!
James is taken from his family at a young age because he has a genetic marker that is common in all covicts. Because of that marker the government has created GoodHouses, a way to train these boys and make them better, upstanding citizens. When a radical religious group burns down James' first Goodhouse, he is moved to Ione, where he meets his new roommate Owen, and a mysterious and forbidden girl, Bethany. While trying to find out the truth about the radical group and what they plan next, Bethany and James grow closer and everything James has ever known is threatened.
This book is so well-written. I was shocked. When someone says literary fiction I tend to think uppity-style writing that is just about impossible to interpret and this is so the opposite. The characters were believable and realistic. The conflicts they faced and situations they were put in were just amazing. I am really quite speechless when it comes to this book. There was never a dull moment! It was incredibly well-paced and just an amazing read. From the villains to the heroes to the incredible ending, an incredible, fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat thriller! And as you have probably already seen and read, a startlyingly incredible debut! I am really excited to not only read this again, but to see what else this author will write next!
James is taken from his family at a young age because he has a genetic marker that is common in all covicts. Because of that marker the government has created GoodHouses, a way to train these boys and make them better, upstanding citizens. When a radical religious group burns down James' first Goodhouse, he is moved to Ione, where he meets his new roommate Owen, and a mysterious and forbidden girl, Bethany. While trying to find out the truth about the radical group and what they plan next, Bethany and James grow closer and everything James has ever known is threatened.
This book is so well-written. I was shocked. When someone says literary fiction I tend to think uppity-style writing that is just about impossible to interpret and this is so the opposite. The characters were believable and realistic. The conflicts they faced and situations they were put in were just amazing. I am really quite speechless when it comes to this book. There was never a dull moment! It was incredibly well-paced and just an amazing read. From the villains to the heroes to the incredible ending, an incredible, fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat thriller! And as you have probably already seen and read, a startlyingly incredible debut! I am really excited to not only read this again, but to see what else this author will write next!
October 15, 2014
** I won this book through Goodreads First Reads Giveaway**
In this Novel James "Goodhouse" Is taken from his parents at the age of three. After being tested for gene markers that predict whether boys will grow up to be murders, robbers. Removed from his loved ones, he's then placed into Goodhouse. A sort of rehabilitation for troubled male youth. While living inside Goodhouse, James and the other boys within are oppressed, brainwashed and down right abused. It's basically kill or be killed in a way. The weak becomes the prey. After never seeing or remembering to see a female he stumbles upon the first girl his age. She's talkative, beautiful. This meeting starts a whirlwind of drama. The abuse intensifies, the danger draws closer. Can James escape Goodhouse with the help of A girl?
This book was at times emotional. The thought of how these boys were damaged, and wrecked was sickening. And it was odd, because with our technology today who's to say that there will not be a way to single out criminals? It's not a world I would want my son to live in. It's scary because it isn't too far fetched. I liked this book. And with a little bit more romance I would have given five stars. I'm a sucker for love..
In this Novel James "Goodhouse" Is taken from his parents at the age of three. After being tested for gene markers that predict whether boys will grow up to be murders, robbers. Removed from his loved ones, he's then placed into Goodhouse. A sort of rehabilitation for troubled male youth. While living inside Goodhouse, James and the other boys within are oppressed, brainwashed and down right abused. It's basically kill or be killed in a way. The weak becomes the prey. After never seeing or remembering to see a female he stumbles upon the first girl his age. She's talkative, beautiful. This meeting starts a whirlwind of drama. The abuse intensifies, the danger draws closer. Can James escape Goodhouse with the help of A girl?
This book was at times emotional. The thought of how these boys were damaged, and wrecked was sickening. And it was odd, because with our technology today who's to say that there will not be a way to single out criminals? It's not a world I would want my son to live in. It's scary because it isn't too far fetched. I liked this book. And with a little bit more romance I would have given five stars. I'm a sucker for love..
November 12, 2014
A first novel from Peyton Marshall, Goodhouse soars as though it were a second or third. We find ourselves in a world not much different from our own, but one that has advanced down a philosophy of genetic selection / predetermination to a frightening degree.
The decision to write from the first person was a wise one, as it allowed me to get right into the story and this narrator's perspective as a compulsory student at one of many Goodhouse boarding school campuses for genetically marked young men.
Violent and brutal at times, and tender at others, Marshall kept the story's pace at a high tempo at all times. While using very precise language, she never let the language get in the way of the story.
Without spoiling the end, I did feel that the use of an epilogue changed the tempo for me. I felt a distinct petering off of the intensity of the story because of this. But I still feel myself hoping for a sequel. These characters are too bright, too clear in my mind to let go of so soon.
The decision to write from the first person was a wise one, as it allowed me to get right into the story and this narrator's perspective as a compulsory student at one of many Goodhouse boarding school campuses for genetically marked young men.
Violent and brutal at times, and tender at others, Marshall kept the story's pace at a high tempo at all times. While using very precise language, she never let the language get in the way of the story.
Without spoiling the end, I did feel that the use of an epilogue changed the tempo for me. I felt a distinct petering off of the intensity of the story because of this. But I still feel myself hoping for a sequel. These characters are too bright, too clear in my mind to let go of so soon.
November 11, 2014
I received this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
Spoilers ahead...
First, Peyton Marshall has a gift for prose. The writing is so good that it's easy to get lost in the story. I enjoyed the book, but I felt a little unfulfilled, which is why I gave it three stars. I feel like the reader wasn't given enough time to get to know James before we were thrust into his story. Additionally, it was kind of a letdown to find out that he wasn't really growing into his own as much as being poisoned by the drugs he was given. I wish we had also been able to get to know Bethany better and really been given reasons to care about their relationship, because I just didn't. Otherwise, I thought that the plot was very well thought out and executed, and while I was not anticipating the climax being such a page turner, it really was. I would definitely pick up additional novels by Peyton Marshall.
Spoilers ahead...
First, Peyton Marshall has a gift for prose. The writing is so good that it's easy to get lost in the story. I enjoyed the book, but I felt a little unfulfilled, which is why I gave it three stars. I feel like the reader wasn't given enough time to get to know James before we were thrust into his story. Additionally, it was kind of a letdown to find out that he wasn't really growing into his own as much as being poisoned by the drugs he was given. I wish we had also been able to get to know Bethany better and really been given reasons to care about their relationship, because I just didn't. Otherwise, I thought that the plot was very well thought out and executed, and while I was not anticipating the climax being such a page turner, it really was. I would definitely pick up additional novels by Peyton Marshall.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2015
This is a tense and heart wrenching novel with the pacing of a thriller. Peyton Marshall in her debut novel writes of a dystopian future where genetic profiling has taken a terrifying turn. James has been identified as having potential criminal impulses and he is taken from his parents at infancy to be raised in a Good House. These horrifying institutions use torture and brain washing to "reform" these young boys. But it isn't just the Good House corporation that threatens James and his fellow inmates. A radical religious group, the Holy Redeemer Church of Purity has it's own solution to reforming the bad boys. Fire. Burn the wickedness in the boys to purify them. James must overcome his own Good House programming to find his way to safety and freedom.
This is a real page turner and an impressive first novel.
This is a real page turner and an impressive first novel.
December 11, 2015
GOODHOUSE read a little YA (though it is not classified as such) for me to feel like I was the optimal reader, but I did find the story compelling and I enjoyed the book. I think it must be well-written because sometimes I didn't really understand what was going on but I still felt engaged and willing to keep reading. I'm a big fan of prison books so the idea of a boy's reformatory in the future appealed to me. Some of the futuristic elements seemed a bit off--I ended up being most interested in getting more information about the place that inspired GOODHOUSE, the Preston School of Industry, and I want to read the author's source material because it sounds fascinating. So, all in all, a decent book--I'd recommend it to anyone whose interest is piqued by the synopsis.
I won this book in a Goodreads First-Reads giveaway.
I won this book in a Goodreads First-Reads giveaway.
April 27, 2015
This first novel. moves along pretty quickly and kept my interest and is well-written, but the idea is not new and reminded me of a better book, Never Let Me Go. Teens who enjoy reading would like this one, I think. Peyton Marshall was inspired by memoirs written by men who survived living in a juvenile rehab facility in CA--the Preston School of Industry--that operated for 117 years. She mentions this in her "Acknowledgements" at the end of the book. Now, I want to go read those memoirs.
November 12, 2014
This was an interesting read. The idea of genetically testing teen boys to see if they are predetermined for a life of crime is intriguing. I feel that the author did well with different genres and presented the idea with good grace. The book was wonderfully written and the drive of the characters was always present.
March 17, 2015
A great listen. The reader does a fantastic job with a strong story. I'm not always a fan of dystopian stories, or of coming of age stories, but the premise was interesting. I'm still sort of creeped out by the whole underlying basis for the Goodhouse movement. It's too close to being possible to be a comfortable notion.
April 21, 2015
So chilling but very believable of a possible future world with genetic profiling advances happening right now. I cared about each and every character even the ones who did terrible things. Amazing first book by the author, I could not put this down!
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