Variant

by Robison Wells

Last month I purchased VARIANT in accordance with the book bomb for Robison Wells. I then told my husband he was going to give it to me for my birthday. It was painful to wait a month knowing the book was in the house but that I couldn't read it. When I found out that Rob would be signing near where I live I told my husband I wanted my book signed. He agreed only if I got Rob to write "Happy Birthday." The signing was really neat and he obliged me by writing "Happy Birthday" in the book. When I started the book Tuesday night I was excited but I wasn't prepared for how much I would like it. I finished Wednesday morning and now I get to wait for the sequel. The nice thought is Rob told us that it wasn't a trilogy is it just going to be two books.

VARIANT is a YA dystopic novel. What is interesting about this book is that it isn't that the whole world is dystopic it is just Maxfield Academy, that I know of. Benson Fisher is a 17-year-old boy who has been shuffled around in the foster care system. He hasn't had many fond memories of living with the 30 some odd families and so decides to take the future into his own hands. He applies and is accepted at Maxfield Academy. When he arrives he can tell immediately that something is wrong, and it isn't just the fact that two students go running after the car that brought him. He expects it to be bad, but he doesn't have any idea how bad it is. The school is divided into three teams, more of gangs, Society, Havoc, and Variant. Even after Benson chooses a group he still feels alone. No one else seems to think it is important that they break free. Benson is put to the test as he has to decide what he is willing to risk in order to escape.

I knew VARIANT was going to be good. I didn't realize how much I would like it. I read a lot of YA books and with the recent rash of dystopic novels I thought I knew how it was going to be. I mean obviously it would have its own twist but I thought I would be entertained by something I would probably be able to guess from the end. I was wrong. The book not only has some very surprising twists, but I loved the characters. Benson is presented with moral dilemmas that at first I didn't realize were problems until other characters brought it up. It really made me think. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants something new and fresh to read.