You all know how much I like me some dystopian fiction right?  I’m always good for a good dystopian read and that makes me have quite a bit in common with my good friend Lenore (of Presenting Lenore fame).  This is a girl who knows her dystopian, so much so she dedicates two full months a year to it!  So, imagine how excited I was when she thought it would be nice to do a few read-a-longs and discussions with little old me for this month’s Dystopian August.

Yup, pretty excited!

Below is the first of our four discussions centering on Christine Seifert’s The Predicteds .  I’ll start with a bit of demographic information for you then segue right into the meat of our conversation.

Title:  The Predicteds [Indie Bound] [Amazon]
Author: Christine Seifert [website] [facebook]
Genre:  Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Provided by publisher (via BEA)
Parental Advisory: school violence, criminal activity, sex, pregnancy
Teachable Moments: bigotry, free-will

 

Now on to the good stuff.  Lenore and I talked about the book in general but decided in order to make it more coherent for you all we would package our thoughts into four tidy categories.  There are two posted on her her blog and below are two you can read here.

Discrimination

Michelle:
I fell in the middle on this issue.  I thought that there was so much potential to explore the issues of discrimination and bigotry but it ended up being so peripheral.  Don’t get me wrong, the story definitely speaks to it and demonstrates how both work in spades.  But I wanted more than a surface view and didn’t feel like I got it.  I felt like the focus on the “mean girl” angle was far more important.  I get that it went to show the actual acts of bigotry and discrimination but man, once you show it can you talk about it’s affects and show more of it’s resolution?  I’ve never been a big fan of build-up, build up, build up and then quick and peripheral resolution.  This had the potential to be a much bigger conversation starter than it was because of that.

Lenore:
I was surprised by how readily students accepted their designations – with barely a ripple of protest. Maybe it shows how eager some people are to accept authority?  In regards to discrimination – some good points are definitely brought up – but some great opportunities are also squandered.  I would’ve loved to see more about the one popular girl who turns up on the list, but she just sort of disappears.

Michelle:
I was surprised there wasn’t more of a revolt on the side of The Predicteds.  It wasn’t unbelievable to me that the “safe” kids were fine with the outcome but I was genuinely shocked there wasn’t more outcry by families and students who fell on to the wrong side of the tracks.  I agree, I thought another missed opportunity here was not following up more with the popular girl who ended up cast out.  I suppose there is only so much you can focus on, right?

Lenore:
Yes, and I’m sure how well the book works for you depends on if you feel the author focused on the “right” things.

Predictability

Michelle:
Holy, I Knew Who the Bad Guy Was From the Jump Batman!  I can’t say that I was surprised by much of what happened.  It was pretty formulaic for me — from the romance, to the “mystery” of who was going to fall into the potential criminal/sociopath category of PROFILE results, to how crimes were perpetrated and covered up, even the whole “who’s the daddy” part of it was pretty clear from the start.  I kept hoping that something somewhere would pop out at me and surprise me but unfortunately it didn’t happen, the plot was pretty straight-forward.

Lenore:
Again, I was caught off-guard because I went into this expecting a dystopia where the main character rebels against the evil overlords – so I was pretty shocked to encounter a fairly typical “mean girls” type story.  But once I realized what I was reading, I figured out the twists pretty quickly.  The book report scene (with Daphne and Josh discussing AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY) was a pretty obvious clue-in, wasn’t it?

Michelle:
I don’t think there was much masking of any of the twisty turny points in the plot.  What I can’t decide is if the intended teen audience will see through as much as I did.  I suppose it depends on the individual and their life experience but I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t more surprised by things along the way.

Lenore:
I would tend to say that younger teens might find it fresher and more shocking, but at the same time, some of the scenes (school shooting) might be too scary for more sensitive readers.

Silver Lining:

Michelle:
Once I accepted the book  as a contemporary read as opposed to a dystopian I found myself liking the fact that it was would be considered harder edged.  The PROFILE aspect was definitely intriguing and despite the fact that it could have been explored more deeply, it made this book stand out from others in its genre a bit.

Lenore:
The writing flows well.  It’s definitely a discussable book.  Those are good things!

Lest you think I didn’t like this book I will say that I did enjoy it.  It wasn’t the best I’ve read but once I embraced the idea that it’s genre classification was off I was able to immerse myself into it a bit better.  It allowed me to shift my expectations and enjoy the ride for what it was.  Speaking of rides, point yourself towards Presenting Lenore to read the other half of this discussion.  We gab about said genre classification and the believability of the plot.