Enclave

by Kit Reed

The world is in war, plague, global ecological collapse. Parents everywhere seek sanctuary for their precious children, the future of mankind. For those who are rich and powerful enough, safety can be found—for a price—at the Clothos Academy. Run by a mysterious man known only as Sarge, set in a former monastery atop a sheer cliff on a tiny island somewhere in the Mediterranean, Clothos will admit only one hundred students before it is sealed off—perhaps permanently—from the terrors outside.

But all is not as it seems. The pupils are so-called starlets best known for their empty heads and eating disorders; troublemakers one step away from incarceration; and junior royals too embarrassing to be let out in public. And the staff isn’t much better, from the alcoholic doctor to an ancient monk with secrets of his own.

And the dangers from which these castaways are being protected? Prerecorded, ready to be trotted out whenever Sarge needs to terrify his little flock. And yet…

Some dangers are real, as two boys discover when they hack the Academy’s self-contained computer network and connect, for a brief but disastrous moment, to the outside world. Worse, a stranger has entered the Academy. And he has brought Death.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

368 pages, Hardcover

First published February 3, 2009

About the author

Kit Reed was an American author of both speculative fiction and literary fiction, as well as psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Kit Craig.

Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.

Reviews

[Cecily · Rating 1 out of 5]

A moderately interesting premise, written in a basic and repetitive way, that is ultimately far too predictable.

A former marine takes 100 problem children of the super rich (plus various staff) to live in a totally isolated, self-sufficient former monastery on Mount Clothos, to avoid the coming apocalypse. Or not. He "doesn't so much believe in God; he wants to be a god."

The children are dragooned into submission in very primitive circumstances by "the protective power of control" and everything is OK, till everything goes wrong: one sort of dire bug takes out the IT infrastructure and another sort puts large numbers in the infirmary.

The story is told mainly via the inner thoughts of some of the main characters, sometimes in the first person and sometimes in the third. The problem is, bar a self-conscious peppering of valley-girl "like" for a few of them, all the characters sound the same and it is all so plodding that some passages are more like a Ladybird book for beginner readers. "He's never seen this much green in his life. He loves these growing things. He loves them so much!" It also repeats itself too much: I lost count of the number of times I was told, in very similar words, that everyone at Clothos had a story and was there for a reason. Somehow it manages to be disjointed as well. For example, an early chapter focuses on a transgender child, who is then not mentioned AT ALL for another 150+ pages.

It is clearly meant to be a mystery/thriller, and I stuck with it because I hoped it would surprise me (and it was a quick, easy read). It isn't and didn't.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously, this book, I don't even know. Here's the thing: I had been awake for about 36 hours, my body thought it was about seven pm, I was flying direct from Zurich to Boston, but I needed to stay awake the whole flight because otherwise I was going to completely screw myself with jetlag. This book was the only thing between me and sleep-deprived psychosis. So it's possible I hallucinated the part where there was a part of this book that was about rich parents selling off their kids to a mysterious disgraced ex-US solider, or the part where the soldier and his high school sweetheart the physician's assistant had some doomed romance that was super-important but never resolved, or the part where it was TOTALLY UNCLEAR WHETHER THERE WAS ACTUALLY ABOUT TO BE A NUCLEAR WAR OR IF THAT WAS JUST PART OF SARGE'S MIND CONTROL, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO RESOLVE THAT PLOT or whether the plague spreads from the enclave and that's the irony because the enclave was supposed to protect them from the apocalypse or what kind of drugs you need to be on to insert into the story I've already described an 80-year-old orphan raised by dead monks with a secret bastard child who's lurking in the catacombs like the Phantom of the Opera.

I must have fallen asleep and imagined some of this stuff. I mean. Seriously.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hubris. It's fitting that the antinymous Academy in Kit Reed's novel Enclave—for which I'm coining the word "antinymous," by the way, since apparently the word "eponymous" doesn't already have a standard antonym, and because the Academy's not even called an "enclave" in the book itself until page 314, at least according to Google Books—is perched on a remote peak somewhere in the Mediterranean near Greece, because there are more elements of Greek tragedy in this book than just its setting. From the first few pages, where we hear the ex-Marine Sarge Whitemore (he's actually a former Lieutenant Colonel who is named Sargent, after the painter) stomping around the Academy pointing out all the ways in which he's made it invulnerable, it's obvious that his pride will be punished. The only question is how.

Sarge's plan makes all too much sense, actually, at least to start with. Since it's all too obvious that civilization is on its last legs—as always, Armageddon is just around the corner—offer the beleaguered billionaire parents of certain high-profile liabilities (slutty teenaged heiresses, spastic royalty and other such tabloid fodder) the option to spirit such sad cases away to an impregnable bunker on a hill, where none of the dangerous, toxic elements of global collapse can possibly get in... and where these borderline kids can lead a monastic life, totally disconnected from the electronic ebb and flow that fosters their notoriety, devoted to contemplation and self-improvement instead of to the unholy trinity of sex, drugs and YouTube.

And, of course, charge Mummy and Daddy a nice chunk of change for the privilege.

Hence, the Academy. Or Enclave, if you want to go by the title. The facility is an abandoned (well, mostly) monastery atop isolated Mount Clothos, from which Sarge has meticulously removed all traces of religious iconography... no more stained glass, no more crosses other than the cruciform shape of the structure itself. The postulants (would-be monks) used to go up to it in baskets suspended from ropes, a system of pulleys and winches that sounds positively... medieval, and they would never leave. Sarge has installed an elevator, updated the monastic cells, and laid on all mod cons (except for the 'Net, of course), but in essence his goal is the same as any hermetic abbot's: his charges, his children, will learn to find fulfillment through austerity and ritual.

And, of course, not being a completely blind fool... from the convincing daily news reports of the ongoing Apocalypse outside the walls, to the Security forces stationed in the catacombs that honeycomb Mt. Clothos, Sarge has taken steps to make sure that his own little monks, none of whom are at the Academy voluntarily, stick with the program.

There were actually a fair number of things I didn't like about this book. The setting is terribly contrived—I find it difficult, if not impossible, to believe that Mount Clothos could really be erased from the world's maps, many of which are not stored electronically, in such an effective manner, for example. The viewpoints shifted erratically, both from chapter to chapter and sometimes even within chapters, and it wasn't always easy to tell which first-person narrator was speaking until several paragraphs or pages in. And the characters sometimes seemed repetitive in a way that was probably realistic for such narratives if they'd been recorded from live interviews, but which probably could have been edited down to make a tauter fiction. I'd be interested to see whether this might even make a better movie than a book—there's plenty of action, and the introspection could be pared down without, I think, harming the story much. So I can't recommend this book wholeheartedly... but hey, it was OK.

[Jacqui · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subtitle of the novel, "Vanity Fair" characterizes Ms. Reed's book just as well as it did Mr. Thackeray's: "This is a novel without a hero." Indeed, the author goes out of her way to illustrate the vile nature of the players, even as she leads the reader down their individual twisted avenues of thought. In her effort to debase each character, however, the sarcasm with which the author pens the innermost thoughts of her creations leaves the reader feeling as though there's something false about the storyline.

There were many positives to the story: the author does an excellent job of outlining exactly what she interprets as flaws in our society and then analyzes these deficiencies by their potential uses. For example: the replacement of personal circles with internet circles by the Clothos students is weighed against its benefits to the Prince who quietly suffers from Grand Maul seizures, garnering support only from his anonymous online community of epileptics. Nothing is black or white in Enclave: everything is gray.

The story vacillates between moments of haunting brilliance and spaces where the present tense language results in grammatical snarls and a bored reader. For as good a job as Enclave's author does characterizing the immediacy of the unfolding events of the story she fails to hold the novel together with descriptive features. At one point, after a wonderfully written dialogue between two of the characters, one of the boys lays back staring up at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. The page before of smart dialogue is lost as the reader realizes that the room they are in cannot be visualized because of the author's disappointing descriptive analysis. The magic is lost and thus so is the reader.

I typically enjoy dystopian literature and stories that encourage the reader to think about and reexamine stances on policy and morality in society. Unfortunately the story doesn't flow well in Enclave, as the writer lingers on some story lines and jumps through others too quickly to keep a reader engaged.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept thinking there was going to be some revelation where the entire book -- rich kids sequestered in a mountain cloister to protect them from the end of the world, which, as it turns out, isn't really ending -- came together for me.

It never came. So even though Enclave kept me interested, as a literal and figurative virus attacks the Academy, I wanted to understand. Unfortunately, I never did.

Still well-written and interesting, but not exactly satisfying.

[Kris Irvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it about 50 pages into the story before I gave up. I don't like Kit Reed's books. The language in them is atrocious and disgusting. At least I know where to go if I ever have the pressing need to look at a bunch of pages with obscenities all over 'em.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping. Believable characters. I loved that no one had the full story, including the reader. Thought the coda was unnecessary, but liked that it didn't answer all the remaining questions.

[Thorn MotherIssues · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like most others here, I thought the coda was unnecessary. The characters were never quite characters for me either. I liked bits, but it didn't add up to much of a whole.

[Jeff Jellets · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world behind them is going to hell and there's only one boat leaving for Mount Clothos. Mine.

Kit Reed’s Enclave is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death but instead of a pampered coterie of debauched nobles heading to the hills to escape a pervasive pestilence it’s a brat pack of their Gen Z children who end up shuttled off to an inaccessible abbey to ostensibly skip the end of the world. Reed’s sanctuary/prison is the claustrophobic Mount Clothos, a dour monastery honeycombed with secret passages and underground crypts which the author quickly fills with a cast of damaged personalities. Switching between first and second person narrations, Reed’s prose is provocative, twisted as it worms its way through minds under increasingly bad circumstances, the plot holding quite a few surprises as it simmers, then boils to climax.

Like Poe’s tale, despite all precautions, death manages to slip past the abbey walls. Reed’s biohazard is both physical and technological, her carrier more concrete than Poe’s symbolic death’s head. The festering epidemic – the fear, the blame, the failing containment – all feels authentic to those who have just survived a real-world pandemic. Reed also has a lot to say about the heartbreak of stolen childhood and the impossibly of rewinding a clock – despite the good(?) intentions of some adults to try to do so – a broken objet d'art that once shattered cannot be seamlessly reassembled. In addition to her singular voice, I love the way Reed studded her tale with pop culture; while this may not ultimately wear well for future readers, it did make it feel edgy and authentic for those of us familiar with chat platforms, online support groups, and WoW besties.

This is one to read for the author’s verve and capability, but it does ultimately fall shy of the five-star mark for me. While it is very well executed, it’s originality doesn’t stretch far enough for me past other thematically similar stories. And while it does wrap up many significant plot points – the coda was a genius suggestion – the few that are left are either significant balls of rope or logic-flaws that seem like they might be a tad too hairy to explain: i.e. where did the abbey get its endless supply of power? what was the source of Sheela’s truffles? could the U.N. rescue teams really get to Clothos so lickety-split? There’s nothing too terrible here, but it did leave me head-scratching more than I wanted to.

Not a bad apocalypse book, and notable for the strength of its author’s voice.

P.S. This book pretty much convinced me that anyone who believes that the impact of COVID-19 on our society could never have been predicted hasn’t read all that many books. Enclave was penned well before the worldwide pandemic, but it’s a fair example of life eventually imitating art. There’s also a towering pile of historical case studies at just about anyone’s fingertips (ranging from Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror to Steven Johnson’s Ghost Map to John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza) along with classics like Albert Camus’ The Plague which will tell you just about all you need to know about the entombing malaise of a mass quarantine.

The fear of an uncontrollable pestilence is a primal horror – something that science just recently managed to transform from a real and present horror to an old-world boogeyman banished by modern medicine – but much to our chagrin, maybe we allowed ourselves to be fooled. Pestilence, like its fellow horsemen, may be cowed by our arsenal of vaccines, prophylactics and therapeutics but we should not be inured to the possibility -- the reality(?) -- that disease (like war, famine and death) will slip its prison (and not without our assistance).

Like Reed’s Clothos, not gone, merely imperfectly, temporarily contained.

[Monica Crane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have so much to say about this book that I don't even know where to begin. I suppose I'll begin with the writing.

I can often overlook poor writing and poor editing if the story is compelling, but this was so cringy that it kept pulling me out of the story. There are words missing, duplicated, misused, etc. So much so, that I assumed that this was a poorly translated book. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Kit Reed was an American author. There seemed to be a complete lack of editing.
The excessive use of the words "fuck" and "like" was enough to make me scream. I have no issues with cussing. I personally have one hell of a potty mouth and I'm not afraid to use these lovely "sentence enhancers" in everyday conversation. But when the word is used more than 3 times in ONE SENTENCE, it's absolutely ridiculous. And to have every teenage character like, totally like, love the word like, is beyond annoying.
The writing is also incredibly repetitive. Paragraphs repeat the same thing over and over but in different ways. And dialogue just keeps looping the conversation.

Now let's talk about the adult characters. All of the adults are completely useless. Most of them run off when something goes wrong, leaving the teens to fend for themselves. They are all cruel and have no respect for any of the students. It's even stated in the book that the teachers aren't bothered with trying to learn their names because there was no point. All the adults have short fuses and explode with rage at the most petty things. Almost every adult at one point threatens murder when they're angry.

What really disgusted me was the lack of compassion there was towards the young characters. These young teens are described by the adult characters and the narrator herself as, dumb broads, bitches, divas, sluts, fat, ugly, and so on. The list of disgusting words goes on. One young girl is even referred to as "the walking eating disorder". A young girl named Sheela helps take care of the students when they all become sick, and even then she is degraded constantly. She's referred to as "fat Sheela", the ugly one, pathetic and lumpy, and so on.
Oh, yes. There was also a transgender character. Oh. My. God. The students and staff all referred to this poor girl as "the girly boy", "the whatever", "the tranny", and a few other things. The narrator often referred to her as "the tranny" or just refused to use the pronouns this character identified with. Rather than respectfully calling her, she/her, the narrator called her him/he, and eventually states they don't know what "it" is so decides to make up a pronoun for her and calls her "ze". It's absolutely disgusting.

Now for the ending. There was no ending. What do I mean by that? I forced myself to finish this book so I could find out what the illness was that was spreading, who the mysterious man was, and what happens to everyone. Well, no idea what the sickness was. The doctor didn't know either, but somehow magically created the cure in the school science lab that he created in just a few weeks. The mystery man turned out to be the long lost son of the monk that lived on that island. Ok. After that? No idea. Absolutely no update about what happens to anyone. It's just over.

This was the first Kit Reed book I've ever read, and will certainly be my last. The derogatory way these children were described, and the authors obvious transphobic thoughts, are enough to keep me far far away from reading anything else by this woman.

[Jesse · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hey! This is my first time reviewing a book so apologies for my poor wording.

Honestly this book was.. not fun to read. Not even ironically. I thought the premise was interesting, I am a big fan of dystopian stories with relatable teen characters in them but this was just so.. bad.

The language describing the teen characters was really gross, calling them sluts and making fun of their addictions made me very uncomfortable, especially when you think they're supposed to be young teens.

The way the teens talk (from what I've seen, I got less than halfway through) is incredibly irritating. The overuse of swearing and saying "like" was ridiculous, and as a 17 year old who is surrounded constantly by other teens- I have to say we don't sound like that.

I didn't like the switching point of views each chapter but maybe that's more of a pet peeve.

I like edgy stories but this was just not it.

I wanted to continue reading this for my English class but I just can't. I couldn't get through it.

[Rachel Adiyah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the professional reviews. Enclave is not a serious novel about the end of the world, but a satire on our military, economy, bad taste in entertainment, and how growing up rich may actually mess you up. It's dark humor all the way through. And that's great, assuming that's your thing. But if you want to read a serious post-apocalyptic novel, skip this one. Read, "Down to a Sunless Sea", "Level 7", or a post-nuclear Philip K Dick novel.

[Heather Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

What really was the point of this novel?

I guess I'll never know.

[Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much promise! Such an interesting set up and mysterious situation! And then the female characters are one sided and entirely soulless except in their relationship to men. And then a trans character! But soon it becomes obvious the book is transphobic too. And then nothing happens. Decent writing style but the promise of a really interesting book whose content is too off base is more than unfortunate.

[Jeannie Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was one for the "doozy" list. A fabulous doozy, but a doozy nonetheless. Kit Reed has created one heck of a unique and creative storyline with Enclave, a plot you won't flush out of your system for some time after you turn that last page. She offers up a very thought-provoking premise to say the least.

An Ex-Marine named Sarge, after finishing his tour of duty, vows to himself he will atone for the horrifying acts he was forced to commit as a soldier by doing something good for society, something that will help people versus harm them.

Purchasing an abandoned monastery that is perched 500 feet atop Mt. Clothos in Greece, Sarge's new lease on life is to turn around the lives of society's young misfits and social embarrassments. Renovating the ancient monastery into a contemporary academy for drug addicts, teen criminals, and the physically impaired, the ex-Marine brings 100 chosen students and a staff of adults to bring alive his vision for transforming these brats into civilized human beings. Bamboozling parents world wide in recruiting his students, he tells the parents of these selected misfits to inform their kids that an apocalyptic crisis, and end of the world scenario of doom is approaching, and that the only way to ensure their survival is to follow Sarge to the Academy where their lives will be saved from annihilation. A ruse of course, a lie, a devious plot and experiment to be acted out under a strict military style academy environment. Once there, they are in lock-down mode, no one can come in, no one will be let out. Set atop a steep cliff that plummets down to a raging sea, escape would be impossible.

What starts out as a walk in the park with the program successfully working with teens towing the line like a drugged chain gang, soon erupts into major chaos as internet servers go down, contact with the outside world is cut off, a mysterious man arrives carrying the plague, and both children and adults become mad with murderous rage trying to escape this insane prison once they realize truths and develop their own game plan of revenge. Kids become adults and the grown-ups get childish, tables turn quickly as a duo of two unlikely boys, one an epileptic Prince of a foreign republic, the other literally a 12 year old murderer and computer whiz, join forces to kick butt and save the day!

Great characters you will surely love, unlikely friendships and surprising betrayals, clever children and crazed adults, make this story heartwarming, exciting, innovative, and very very different. I loved this novel and highly recommend it to all teens and adults who love a creative tale of speculative fiction that both entertains and makes your mind wonder! Two thumbs up, five stars!

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I didn't read it, I wrote it. Just out from Tor.
Publishers Weekly starred it in this review:


Publishers Weekly starred review
Enclave Kit Reed. Tor, $25.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2161-9

In this gripping dystopian satire, ex-marine Sargent Whitmore has a plan to make millions while protecting children from the self-destructing modern world. He turns an old Mediterranean monastery into a combined impenetrable fortress and school, and enrolls 100 filthy-rich children, most of them already well-known for legal troubles, drug problems and paparazzi run-ins. Once there, everyone is cut off from the outside world, fed only canned news stories about wars and natural disasters. When things inevitably go horribly wrong, young hacker “Killer” Stade, physician assistant Cassie, drug and sex-crazed Sylvie and monastery-raised orphan Benny all attempt heroics, but remain deeply flawed. Reed (The Baby Merchant) displays unflinching willingness to explore all the facets of all of the characters, and her refusal to paint anyone as a simple villain makes this far more than a typical disaster novel.
Since I said I didn't have time to post 25 random things about myself, a Facebook friend asked me to post 25 random things about ENCLAVE, so I did, and here they are:
Now, *that* I could do. 1. Mountain island. 2. Benedictine monastery. 3. Now it's a school. 4. Sarge runs it. 5. He's an ex Marine. 5. Problem kids go there. 6. One accidentally killed a guy. 7. One's pre-op trans.8. One has seizures. 9. The MD's a drunk. 10. His P.A. is lovely, but on the run. 11. She's in love with Sarge. 12.Benny is the last monk. 13. Something awful happened to the others. 14. Guidance counselor's a jerk. 15. Chef is dangerous. 16. IT man's a brilliant hacker. 17. Fleeing the feds. 18.Internet connections severed. 19. Except for Sarge. 20. World may end. 21. Or not. 22. Kids crash Sarge's server. 23. Benny meets weird stranger. 24. Kids start getting sick. 25. Then...

[Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read through page 52...

This book is horrible!

I hate seeing the adult POV and especially the crazy, disjointed Sarge the overlord! The worst was we STARTED with him! You can't even understand the first page. So I read through the odd "Benny" who seemed contrived from the get go to explain to us the history of the monastery. Then finally we got to one of the kid's POVs and he's a killer kid! I'll say it again a 12 year old kid who is a self proclaimed murderer! I didn't like him and needless to say he's not as smart as he thinks he is! And his voice sure is similar to the crazy Sarge who also believes he's as righteous as Killer (yup, that's the killer kid's nickname)!

I couldn't finish this trash...

[Frederic Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this book is pretty awesome: As the world seems to be falling apart, a former marine persuades the wealthy parents of the kind of spoiled Beverly Hills brats who regularly make tabloid headlines to enroll them in a new "school" he established in an isolated and remote monastary. From there, however, the book goes downhill. Some of the minor characters - namely, the messed-up kids - have promise, but the main protagonists are shallowly drawn with confusing motivations. In fact, "confusing" is a good word to describe most of the story line. When the book ended, I wasn't sure what happened, why things happened or how the author could have thought that all the loose ends had been pulled together.

[H. R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reed has all the ingredients, but for some unclear reason they don't add up to anything more than a marginally competent novel. It was a bit like reading one of Heller's lesser work, i.e. Catch 22 without...not sure why, but the novel didn't work. Clearly Reed spent a lot of time thinking about the Millennial generation, and on the surface captured them.

Maybe there was just too much cynicism in the characters, collectively, to generate reader concern or bonding with any of them. A kind of extremely Narcissistic and teen-age version of Ship of Fools, but again it doesn't work.

[K Holl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book captured me from opening it, good premise and she really has the voice of certain characters down (Sarge, Killer). But by midway I began to suspect I was going to be disappointed, there wasn't enough book left to wrap up all the loose ends that had been introduced nor enough explanation for what exactly was going on in the world, etc. By the ending you still didn't know what had made them sick, or what happened to many characters although she does end with a corny flash forward on two characters (felt like I was at a graduation ceremony where highschool kids write future scenarios with them all successful in that final chapter).

[Noel Winter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it to the eighth chapter before I called it quits. I was trying to make myself read more, but I just couldn't. The chapters go back and forth between a few of the main characters, and mainly focuses on their inner thoughts; so it bounces around a lot. At first, I thought I liked the choppy way it was written-- even though it confused me TO DEATH-- but the more I got into it, the more I was displeased. The language is disgusting. The F-bomb is dropped every other sentence, and all the characters are generally the same. Not too happy with this one.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 2.5

I read this book by mistake. I meant to request a different book by the same title. But who can look a poor book in the eye and say no?

This book had something going for it, though I was never able to put my finger on it. It was a page turner I guess. The author always created enough tension that I wanted to keep going. There was always the carrot of something more, without it ever being delivered. However, the plot is nonsensical, the setting is impossible, the characters forgettable. I can’t recommend it, but I don’t feel like it was a complete waste of time.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost completely enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the hook was extremely compelling. The ending, however, was a bit of a disappointment. I was also hoping there would be more details about the exact nature of the near-future semi-apocalyptic dystopia where the book is set, but these were sadly lacking, with each character obsessing more about their own personal neuroses than the state of the world. That's humanity for you!

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose this book to fill the category "a book that got bad reviews" on my Reading Challenge. I expected it to be bad. It was worse than I expected.

If you are looking for a book where every other word is profanity, the story is repetitive and predictable, the narration changes back and forth from 1st person to 3rd person, and all of the characters are completely detestable, this is the book for you. Otherwise, stay away.

[Jenett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Students get sent to a highly remote boarding school. Mysterious things happen. While I'm normally a fan of boarding school stories with a twist, (and I've liked a lot of Kit Reed's other work!) this one felt a little discombobulated, and I had to suspend disbelief in a few too many places to have the story work for me.

[Kathy Sandlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one book I am so mad I didn't drop after the first 100 pages. I was so excited to read it after it was featured in our local paper. I kept reading and reading waiting for it it get better. It wasn't overall bad that you knew to quit part of the way through. You realized that it was not a good book after you finished it.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent novel from Kit Reed, a master of the internal monologue and a satirist with compassion. Her teenaged characters here are crazed, obnoxious, fascinating, truly messed up, and utterly convincing, and the author treats them with respect. Highly recommended for both kids (especially if the kid is the kind of messed-up adolescent I was) and adults who don't mind sharp edges.

[Kd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very provocative idea. Almost apocalyptic, naturally I did not want it to end the way it did for some. But the ending was fitting. I was most intrigued by the author's bio. Would like to know more about her. From first appearance and description, one would not expect the empathy for the age group.

[Ed]

The back cover hooked me...a group of people sequestered from the world in some sort of experimental school...whatever, say no more, I AM THERE. I started it, but my head wasn't in the right place, so I'm shelving it until such time as....

[Salem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good, but not great. Challenging read because Reed nails the language of her narrators, but ultimately the psychology of the characters remains superficial, and the underlying concept feels a bit wobbly.