This newly introduced town just comes across as a sort of limbo, much like that long and tedious camping section of that last Harry Potter book. And that is largely where the problem is. In FEEDBACK there are no bars, no rules, and no gangs. Benson and Becky have escaped all this and made it to a town inhabited by friends they previously thought lost. So Benson and Becky trade one kind of prison for another. Student life at Maxfield was this strange mixture of clashing gangs, constant surveillance, and paintball.

The sense of mystery and paranoia that permeated life at Maxfield Academy in VARIANT was the most compelling aspect. And then Benson discovers that some friends he thought dead are actually very much alive. They are actively being pursued and have no idea where to go or what to do when they get there. Benson and Becky have escaped the Academy but are surrounded by miles of forest. By now you’ve probably noticed I do this thing where I build up expectations that can’t possibly be met.įEEDBACK starts off right where VARIANT left off. The point is that VARIANT kicked serious butt and because of this my expectations going into FEEDBACK were incredibly high. Too much name dropping? Probably, but you’ll live. Reading it brought to mind the controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, and even bits of ENDER’S GAME ( Amazon). It was streamlined and focused and creepy and brilliant. VARIANT was like a beautiful thriller conglomeration of THE HUNGER GAMES ( Amazon) - the ideas not the execution - LORD OF THE FLIES ( Amazon), and the psychological horror/thriller film CUBE ( Amazon). And while Benson struggles to figure out who, if anyone, can be trusted, he discovers that Maxfield Academy’s plans are darker than anything he imagined-and they may be impossible to stop. Friends he was afraid he had killed. They are all pawns in the school’s twisted experiment, held captive and controlled by an unseen force. People from Maxfield who Benson had seen die. The worst was over. Or so he thought. But now he’s trapped on the other side of the wall, in a different kind of prison. Here’s the Amazon book description (if you find this spoilerish, send them your hate mail):īenson Fisher escaped from Maxfield Academy’s deadly rules and brutal gangs. I’m going to try and give away as few spoilers as possible but if you haven’t read the first book please check out our review of VARIANT instead of continuing on. Now here is the highly anticipated sequel, FEEDBACK ( Amazon). VARIANT is one of the best YA books of 2011, far superior to the YA fiction behemoth that is THE HUNGER GAMES in my not-so-humble opinion. Go on Amazon and buy a copy, read it, and then you can come back to browse this review. Did you read VARIANT ( EBR Review) by Robison Wells? If you answered, “Yes” then by all means read on.

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