Nightstrike's Reviews: Variant

Variant, by Robison Wells, is one of those books that does little to explain the twist at the end. This is forgivable, because it's part of a series, but it still is disappointing when the ending has little explanation as to why some characters are alive. Once again, have a big ol'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Warning: Spoiler-Heavy Ahead!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The book starts off immediately with Benson Fisher going to the mysterious Maxwell Academy, and to him, it seems like any other random private school in the middle of the woods. Oddly enough, that doesn't set off any alarm bells for him. Neither does the wall surrounding the school, with the electrified fence, barbed wire, and armed patrols. I will admit that it's rather amusing to visualize Benson running around the school, looking for any staff, when he finds out that the students ARE the staff. Apparently, the students are restricted from leaving, and are tasked with running the school. Amusingly enough, not many people actually believe it's a sort of experiment, and are content with remaining in the school for what would seemingly be the rest of their life. One of the things that was confusing as I was reading, was the fact that Benson's intentions were a little unclear. He kept switching between wanting to find out what the true purpose of the school is, and wanting to escape the school.

I'm cutting off the spoilers there, but I will point out that if you intend to read it as part of a series, then I recommend ignoring this review. As part of a series, it does little to keep me hooked, as it's mainly a way to introduce characters. That being said, there were some really well-written moments.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5