"A brutal and unflinching look at what it means to be "different" and how sometimes, those who are oppressed will rise up and get their justice."Pros: The similarities between the segregation of the South in the 60s is strongly mirrored/All the main characters, plague generation or human, have their flaws but also their strengths and DiLouie does a good job of making them believable. The light parts are truly light while the dark parts are truly, truly dark.
Cons: The dialect took some getting used to with the "you might could" and all that but other than that, there were no real cons. It was a great read.
Full Review:
Set in the deep South in a small county in Georgia, right from the start, you can tell this book is different. Dog, a boy who more or less has the features of a Dog, is brought into the Principal's office at the "Home" where he lives (a place where others of his kind are kept) and is met with an Agent Shackleton. This happens every year and he's always asked the same questions, whether he has any sort of special "ability." Dog answers truthfully, saying that he can run faster than anyone he knows, but Shackleton informs him that that is not a special ability and that he will never, in fact ,be special and to get out of his sight.
This is common of how "creepers" or children born during the "Plague Generation" are treated. No one is entirely sure how the Plague began. They know it's a sexually transmitted disease but no one knows if it was engineered, if it just occurred naturally or what. All they know is that during the late 60s to early 70s, more and more babies were born with defects, terrifying defects. You think of Spider man, or Batman, but these would be like Spiderman if he actually looked like a spider. Sadly, most of the "plague babies" are often given up and there has been a system of "homes" established for them by the Government. They're offered food, work and an education but not much else. And Dog, along with his friend Brain (eidectic memory) crave for something more, for freedom.
Dog is more or less content to live out his teenage years in the Home and then when he's 18, he'll be set off free, able to live as an adult and do as he pleases. And since they spend four of five days a week, working on Albod's farm, he wants to be a farmer. Brain, has other ideas. With his photographic memory and ability to recall absolutely anything he's ever read, he's starting to form ideas and is secretly gathering those at the Home, who have special abilities and training them for a Revolution.
On the opposite side of things, the humans, mainly Sally Albod, Jake Coombs and Amy Green (who is actually a plague baby but no one knows that except she and her mother) are starting to form their own opinions about the plague generation. Jake and Sally feel badly for them, knowing that they should be treated equally, that they're just as human as everyone else. Jake is not afraid of voicing his opinion, going so far as to hand out fliers that the plague generation deserves just as much respect as other humans, much to the chagrin of the town. He is collected by his Father, who decides that if he really wants to help the plague babies so much, then he should do something about it and so they decide to use the Church to run a food drive.
On the same day that Jake hands out fliers, Amy is walking home and one of the Home's overseers, a leering, ex-convict named Ray Bowie, tracks her down. They at first have a friendly conversation and she joins him in his car to have a beer. But it quickly turns violent as it appears that he's slipped something into her drink. He rapes her, but when she wakes up after having blacked out, she discovers that she and Ray are covered in blood and that it's all his, because he no longer has a head. Sally manages to get home and as her Mother is cleaning her off, she whispers that she thinks she did a bad thing and her Mother simply assures her that she'll take care of it.
This catalyst sets of a series of horrifying, dark, deadly events that will leave the reader stunned. It's a dark, dark book that doesn't hold anything back and any pretense of hope that things will "work out" for the plague generation are quickly snuffed out. DiLouie paints a vivid picture of hate, discrimination, violence and fear and everything that happens in the novel is driven by that fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of what's different, fear of accepting others as they are and being unable to see past your own prejudices. It is a dark but deep book and as one critic said, "It will change you." They were right.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love for those who are different, for the outcasts, who's a fan of Science Fiction and who's not afraid to read something brutal, honest and painful but necessary.
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