Title: Candor
Author: Pam Bachorz
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Egmont USA
Source: Review Copy Provided by Publicist
Parental Warning: light language, teenage rebellion

Summary:
Candor Florida is an impeccable community brimming with parental involvement and civic-minded students who excel in all subjects. It’s environmentally friendly, crime free and governed without debt. In a word it’s perfect.

Or is it?

Socially engineered to within an inch of it’s life Candor is beyond idyllic yet Oscar Banks lives to bunk the system. Oscar knows something his high-school aged peers don’t. It’s all a ruse — one specifically designed by adults to take their “problem” children and turn them into super stars of social consciousness, academic excellence and ultimately subserviance. His interest in thwarting the system is initially less about civil rights and the wrongs of mind control and more about rebellion against the man behind the curtain. A man, as it turns out, that happens to be Oscar’s father.

Enter Nia.

Turning his view of the situation completely upside down, Nia is Oscar’s first taste of love. She represents everything he’s ever wanted to be and be part of. Free-spirited, rebellious, and not remotely interested in towing the party line she waltzes into Candor with the bravado of a diplomat’s daughter. Unfortunately she was not immune to the political wiles of Mr. Banks. As it turns out she is, much to Oscar’s chagrin, number one candidate for mind-control.

Desperate to keep her individuality (and perhaps his own soul) intact Oscar begins his plight to save her and bring his father down.

Opinion:
The most compelling aspect of Candor is less about the rigid life inhabitants are forced to live at the hands of Mr. Banks and more about the father son dynamic that his control creates. Instead of allowing his son to grieve the loss of several family members, instead of creating a relationship built on that common ground Mr. Banks forces Oscar to rebel against unusual circumstances in a less than ordinary way.

Compelled to fight for free will not just for himself but for his classmates as well Oscar’s main foe is the one person he should be relying on most. In this way Oscar is actually a true teenager as he sneaks around and tries to keep his father at bay. The difference being the consequences of success or failure are much more extreme than the typical teenage rebellion about music or grades or selection of friends.

What is most interesting is that it is in Oscar’s final selfless gesture to the only person who he felt understood him, the only person he wanted to share his time and his life with, that the father-son relationship that Mr. Banks so longed for is solidified. It is in this act that Oscar becomes everything he never wanted.

It is this element of the story that had the greatest and most profound impact.

Written with an understated eloquence and subtlty Bachorz created an eerily robotic and somewhat disconcerting burg in Candor. The characters were over the top perky and conscientious yet rarely annoying to the reader. They exhibited traits of perfection, they were the ultimate in submission and all the while small traces of individuality leaked through in desperate attempts to show that there were still people in the mindless bodies created by Mr. Banks.

The irony of it all was that Mr. Banks ended up being the most robotic and least feeling character of them all. In his desperation to forget his wife and oldest son he lost all ability to effectively communicate, he lost the ability to discern right from wrong, and ultimately he became so mired in denial and avoidance that he was no longer able to do more than provide a service to community members. He got from point A to point B by controlling every aspect of everyone’s life.

Another interesting, and quite ironic, element of the story I truly enjoyed was the fact that Oscar used the same means his father undertook to try and preserve individuality. His own mind control tapes were designed to keep people themselves but in doing so he irradiated the true meaning of individuality and free will. There was still someone controlling their lives.

One of the things I adored most about this book was that Bachorz wasn’t afraid to take risks. Most particularly in how she handled the end. Without spoiling what exactly that ending is the result of Oscar’s hard work against his father was shocking in a way that has the ability to make a person weep. Done with great emotion and tremendous realism Bachorz creates a satisfying resolution that makes me yearn for more. Despite having heard of no plans for a sequel I can see there is definitely room to revisit Oscar and Nia. I’d love to get a peak of what happened to each and where they are now.

If you like dystopian fare that is less about fantasy and the end of the world then definitely pick up a copy of Candor it’s a fabulously interesting and thought provoking read.