He’s also much more of a rebel than most teenagers. He’s a much more mature person than I was at 17, thinking very carefully and systematically about the mystery of the school and how he can escape. Quite frankly, I don’t really identify with him, even though I admire him. As a person, Benson is an all-round good guy – smart, easy to like, adaptable – but not interesting enough to be a great character based on personality alone. He’s an excellent character, not because of who he is as a person, but because of the function he serves as a narrator, as the perspective from which you experience the story. Benson is as appalled by this as anyone should be, and isn’t shy about voicing his views – the school is a prison, everyone is insane for pretending that things are normal, and he’s going to get the hell out.īenson is actually the main reason I enjoyed this book so much. There’s no point in making Benson think he’s in a normal school, so as soon as he arrives there’s a student to explain everything to him. Unlike some stories with a mystery, it doesn’t waste your time pretending that nothing’s wrong, even though you already know what’s wrong because you read about it in the blurb. Normally, I’m averse to YA set in schools, preferring the more adventurous kind, but Maxfield Academy isn’t your average school and I loved this novel. The four most serious offences – trying to escape, violent fighting, refusing punishments or having sex – will get you sent to detention, which as far as anyone knows means death. Break the rules and you suffer punishments like being starved for two days. Keep in line and you can earn comforts and luxuries. It’s a volatile little society that’s held together by peer pressure and fear, and functions on rewards and punishments.
Students who don’t agree with either of those groups and who still dream of escape can join the V’s – the Variants – which is where Benson naturally ends up.
Havoc just wants to be powerful and menacing. The most powerful gang, The Society, thinks the best way to deal with the school is to play by the rules. The school’s services and maintenance are all taken care of by the students, who have organised themselves into gangs with specific outlooks and responsibilities. They’re watched constantly by cameras and bound by endless rules. Students are not allowed to leave or communicate with anyone on the outside. But when Benson arrives at the school he learns that it’s a trap. At 17, he applies for a scholarship to the prestigious Maxfield Academy in the hope of a better life. Source: Review copy from publisher via NetGallyīenson Fisher has been in foster care since he was five, constantly changing schools and families, never staying long enough to make friends.
Publisher: HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins
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