This would make a really awesome action film. ( )

Usually, I only talk about throwing books; this one irritated me enough that I actually did throw it. Whine whine whine, yeah, life sucks. However, crappy writing is no remedy therefor.

Ahhhhhhh I've been reading this forever and I'm a little better than halfway through, but every time I open it up I get the "what is this I don't even" feeling again. I think there are some interesting ideas, but by the time I've gotten this far into the book I've forgotten what they are.

The writing is pretty bad. This is why people shouldn't achieve their dreams at 15 years old. Oh goodness the badness of the writing. And it seems there was not an editor within ten feet of the manuscript. ( )

Tack and his sister Suzie are students. The purpose of the educational system in this dystopian novel is to create adults who will obey without question. In order to do this, the Mayor creates laws that require students to obey, regardless of the task. The consequences are brutal, such as expulsion, which can lead to death. The Mayor, who rules with an iron fist, has a group of Enforcers who make sure all rules are followed.

The Truancy is a group of teens who have,for the most part, left school and are fighting the Enforcers. Both sides of this equation use brutal means to attain their goals, which is total annihilation of the other side.

Each year the school has senior day during which the seniors brutalize the underclassmen. Tack and Suzie run away and Tack enters uninhabited District 19 where he meets Umasi, a pacifist in this war between the Enforcers and the Students. Tack returns on a regular basis and Umasi teaches him both to fight and to be cmopassionate.

When a chief enforcer, Mr. Caine, visits Tack's school, Suzie's friend Melissa throws a sticnk bomb at him. Suzie takes the blame and as Mr. Caine escorts Suzie to a car to drive her away and expel (kill her), The Turancy (in the form of Zyid and Noni) throw a molotov cocktail at the car, inflaming it and killing both Suzie and Mr. Caine. Tack is helpless in this ordeal but runs away in both agony and fear that he will be held accountable in some fashion.

Tack runs to deserted District and meets up with The Truancy. He joins and beomces an integral part of their organization. His goal of getting revenge on Zyid and Noni for his sister's death becomes secondary.

Through a series of discussion questions at the end of the book, the reader understands that Fukui is trying to relate his story to the guerilla warfare going on in the world today. However, in my opinion, he has created a dull, but violent story. I don't thinnk that the reader empathizes with an character, least of all Tack. The plot is slow, the action mostly bombing and rocket launchers and the pacing, while there is action, is dull and slow. The reader loses the sensation of time.

I bagged the book about 2/3 of the way through. Regardless of the outcome, I didn't think I'd gain any more insight into the book and the boredom factor was rearing its ugly head. ( )

I found TRUANCY to be thoughtful and interesting, and sometimes just plain funny-- as when Isamu takes a punch at current events by having the Mayor's staff invent the deadly disease-of-the-week which is fed to The Media every time the Mayor has some problem he wants to hide from the populace.

The plotting was good, and the story unfolds in layers as Tact finds himself first opposing The TRUANCY and then joining it. And I really enjoyed the secondary characters, like Tact's mentor, a boy with almost super-human martial arts abilities.

There's been some criticism of the violence in this book, but most of that comes from people who couldn't finish it. I think perhaps they might have stumbled over the 7th grade vocabulary and had to stop reading. (The accelerated reading number is generic "7" by the way. One of the highest levels I've run across in years of doing reviews.) In the end, it's quite clear that the message is anti-violent.

All-in-all I found TRUANCY to be a fun read. It's not perfect --I thought it was too long-- but it's thought provoking and entertaining. I plan on picking up the prequel sometime later this summer. If you're uncertain try Amazon's look inside.

Oh yeah, one other bit of advice. This book isn't entirely grounded in 'reality' with a big "R". When reading TRUANCY you might want to put on your "Seventh Samurai hat", your Clint Eastwood spagetti western hat, and think of the book more as a graphic-novel without the graphics.

Considerations: Violence, language

pam t~
mom and reviewer
(booksforkids-reviews)