Book Review : The Disappeared by C. J. Harper

Synopsis :
In a future where children are segregated into institutions that range from comfortable “Learning Communities” to prison-like “Local Academies”, seventeen-year-old Jackson is an academic high flyer, living in a top Learning Community and destined for a position in the Leadership. But when he is sent with his best friend Wilson to deliver a package to a factory block, the two boys are attacked, leaving Jackson badly beaten and Wilson dead.

Confused and upset, Jackson returns to his Learning Community only to be dismissed by his teachers who claim not to know him. Sent to an Academy, an institute set up to train factory workers, Jackson finds himself immersed in a world that couldn’t be further removed than the comfortable life he’s used to; a harsh, violent, semi-articulate society where the students have created their own hierarchy based on fighting ability.

Using his wits to survive, Jackson starts to realise that his whole life has been based on half-truths. And in order to survive he needs to expose the lies that surround the Academy and find out the truth about who he really is. As he builds alliances and begins to educate those closest to him, a plan for rebellion and escape gradually comes into shape...

Fast-paced, page-turning, moving, yet with a streak of dark humour, The Disappeared is a very British dystopia, with shades of Orwell and Huxley.

Bumped into another mediocre novel again. The romance in this book is meager.
In The Academy, all the students are called Specials.
They have their rank based on how they fight in the arena on friday night.
The highest level for male is called Rex and for female is Dom.
They get extra food and Specials respect them.
Below them are Red and Hon Red.
Out of all that just normal Specials and of course all of them strive to get into one of the category above.
The Academy is a very dirty, horrendous, and uneducated place.
They are not taught how to read and write,
they are allowed to have sex and babies, moreover the enforcers encourage them,
the food given have drug in it, and
they will be punished with a little bit of electric shock and for the worse case, they will be sent out to the Wilderness.
Wilderness is a deserted place with feral boys in there. They hunt you, they eat you.
I can't imagine if that place did exist in this world!
But basically, the suspense in this book is not high, just mediocre.
I feel nothing towards the characters too. I don't know if I really need to read the second book or not.

Rate 
★★