Candor by Pam Bachorz
Sep. 29th, 2010 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
My name is Oscar and I am the perfect teenager.
I go out with the hottest girl in school.
I get straight As. I am class president.
Oscar Banks lives in the pristine town of Candor. Son of the mayor, he is good-looking, smart and popular. And he knows something he shouldn’t – he knows about the brainwashing Messages embedded in the music that plays all over town.
Oscar has found a way to burn counter-Messages that keep him real. Up to now, it’s all worked perfectly. There’s just one problem: Nia Silva, the newest Candor arrival. What will Oscar risk to keep the Nia he loves rather than watch her become a Candor automaton?
Oscar Banks has it all. The only son of the mayor of Candor (a model town in Florida) he’s good-looking, top of his class, dates the best looking girl in school and everyone wants to be his friend. He’s why desperate parents spend millions buying houses in the town – they want their children to be like him and moving to Candor can make that happen even for the most troubled, rebellious teen.
Oscar knows how the miracle happens – his father has embedded brainwashing Messages into the music that plays all over Candor. The Messages force everyone to change their behaviour and once you’ve heard them, you have to listen to more or you die. Oscar counters this by burning his own Messages to retain his personality. Huns a black market selling CDs to those teens able to pay and helps some to escape.
Then Nia Silva arrives. A beautiful, gifted graffiti artist, Oscar falls in love with her. But helping her risks exposing his own secrets and his father has a special punishment for those who resist the Messages. Will Oscar risk his father’s anger, risk losing everything he has for love, or will he allow himself to lose Nia to the Messages forever?
Pam Bachorz’s debut novel is 1984 meets THE STEPFORD WIVES for a teen audience.
Bachorz gives Oscar a strong voice and he introduces the ways and secrets of Candor in an assured way. Too manipulative and self-interested to be likeable, his redemptive storyline (his relationship with Nia) prevents him from being unlikable either.
Unfortunately it’s difficult to see what sets Nia apart from the other girls Oscar’s met (and, it’s implied, taken sexual favours from). Similarly, it’s difficult to see what Nia sees in him given that the scenes where they interact lack spark. In fact, Nia feels underdeveloped as a character – painted in brush strokes that are too broad and which reduce her to a teenager rebelling because it’s the only way to get her parents’ attention. Oscar’s relationship with his father is more interesting - Bachorz teases out the history that led his dad to set up Candor in a way that humanises them both while heightening the sinister nature of the Messages.
Although it’s a great idea, the execution didn’t quite work for me and the story itself becomes predictable but I’d definitely be interested in reaching Bachorz’s next book.
The Verdict:
1984 meets THE STEPFORD WIVES for a teenage audience, the idea behind the story is great and the way the Messages operate is really sinister but Oscar is not an easy character to empathise with and it was difficult for me to believe in the relationship between him and Nia. It’s an okay read and I’d definitely read more of Pam Bachorz’s work.
CANDOR was released in the UK on 2nd August. Thanks to Egmont for the ARC.
I go out with the hottest girl in school.
I get straight As. I am class president.
Oscar Banks lives in the pristine town of Candor. Son of the mayor, he is good-looking, smart and popular. And he knows something he shouldn’t – he knows about the brainwashing Messages embedded in the music that plays all over town.
Oscar has found a way to burn counter-Messages that keep him real. Up to now, it’s all worked perfectly. There’s just one problem: Nia Silva, the newest Candor arrival. What will Oscar risk to keep the Nia he loves rather than watch her become a Candor automaton?
Oscar Banks has it all. The only son of the mayor of Candor (a model town in Florida) he’s good-looking, top of his class, dates the best looking girl in school and everyone wants to be his friend. He’s why desperate parents spend millions buying houses in the town – they want their children to be like him and moving to Candor can make that happen even for the most troubled, rebellious teen.
Oscar knows how the miracle happens – his father has embedded brainwashing Messages into the music that plays all over Candor. The Messages force everyone to change their behaviour and once you’ve heard them, you have to listen to more or you die. Oscar counters this by burning his own Messages to retain his personality. Huns a black market selling CDs to those teens able to pay and helps some to escape.
Then Nia Silva arrives. A beautiful, gifted graffiti artist, Oscar falls in love with her. But helping her risks exposing his own secrets and his father has a special punishment for those who resist the Messages. Will Oscar risk his father’s anger, risk losing everything he has for love, or will he allow himself to lose Nia to the Messages forever?
Pam Bachorz’s debut novel is 1984 meets THE STEPFORD WIVES for a teen audience.
Bachorz gives Oscar a strong voice and he introduces the ways and secrets of Candor in an assured way. Too manipulative and self-interested to be likeable, his redemptive storyline (his relationship with Nia) prevents him from being unlikable either.
Unfortunately it’s difficult to see what sets Nia apart from the other girls Oscar’s met (and, it’s implied, taken sexual favours from). Similarly, it’s difficult to see what Nia sees in him given that the scenes where they interact lack spark. In fact, Nia feels underdeveloped as a character – painted in brush strokes that are too broad and which reduce her to a teenager rebelling because it’s the only way to get her parents’ attention. Oscar’s relationship with his father is more interesting - Bachorz teases out the history that led his dad to set up Candor in a way that humanises them both while heightening the sinister nature of the Messages.
Although it’s a great idea, the execution didn’t quite work for me and the story itself becomes predictable but I’d definitely be interested in reaching Bachorz’s next book.
The Verdict:
1984 meets THE STEPFORD WIVES for a teenage audience, the idea behind the story is great and the way the Messages operate is really sinister but Oscar is not an easy character to empathise with and it was difficult for me to believe in the relationship between him and Nia. It’s an okay read and I’d definitely read more of Pam Bachorz’s work.
CANDOR was released in the UK on 2nd August. Thanks to Egmont for the ARC.
