Teen dystopia #473

Rating: 5/10 (27 September 2014)

Insert synopsis (which you can get from all the other reviews) here.
The biggest obstacle is the characters refusing to commit to simple, direct and completely normal exposition. There's little backstory and a "don't ask questions!" mentality among the preexisting captives which is antithetical to a viable, workable society. Unanswered questions is a literary device meant to create tension along the way, but it only works when the characters are in situations in which answers are denied by events--such as being interrupted by The Bad Thing before one can get the answer. These characters are sitting, bored, in a restricted area with lots of opportunities for exposition but refusing to provide it. It distracts considerably from the story's appeal and credibility.
There's also the cosmetic factor. It's VERY hard to believe that a society entirely composed of boys living rough in the woods would have such cleanly cropped hair and perfect skin all around. Even Boy Scouts are not this well-kept after one *week* camping.
Still, I can see why the story appeals to its target audience of teenagers (or emotionally and intellectually arrested post-teens) wanting to see themselves as individuals standing out in an undifferentiated mass of conformists. It's really no different from Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, I Am Number Four, Ender's Game, and all those other "miracle child" story lines.
Plus with this one you have the high school metaphor: trapped in a controlled environment, a specific caste system in place, the navigable "maze" only available to the best within them, being unaccountably provided with the basic sustenance for survival and constantly being frightened by outside forces claiming that a failure to conform will mean certain doom.
The semi-reveal of the "experimental environment" is silly. It appears to be tacked-on and irrational, possibly as an invitation to see the next book in the series. But in reality it just feels like much ado about nothing.
Overall, entertaining as long as you don't invest too much into the consistency or credibility.