Friday May 10, 2013
Faint echoes of 1984 in The Disappeared
Review by TAN SHIOW CHIN
star2@thestar.com.my
What do you do when your world disappears from under your feet and no one knows your name any more?
The Disappeared
Author: C.J. Harper
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 376 pages
THE cover photo and blurbs for this book are compelling. The cover, as you can see, is the image of a teenage boy’s face – protagonist John Jackson, one presumes – made out of dozens of small mugshots, apparently sent in by the public.
It is accompanied by a blurb that reads: “Deleted from the system, taken from everything you know, how would you survive?”
I mean, who wouldn’t be drawn in by that? So, kudos to the team that put it all together.
However, the story itself was rather a letdown, in particular, the characterisation of Jackson, as well as the plot twist.
Now, for those who like fast-paced stories, you might be interested to know that the action pretty much starts in the first few chapters. Jackson and his best friend, Wilson – both 16-year-old students at an elite school – have been sent to a factory block by one of their teachers, known as facilitators, to deliver a package. By the end of page 15, Jackson has been badly beaten up by two anonymous men and Wilson is dead.
By page 32, we discover that Jackson’s records have been deleted from his school’s system, and the staff there claim they don’t know him at all.
In a social system where everyone has a place to fill and a job to do, Jackson, now known as Blake Jones, is dumped in an academy, a place where those with the lowest potential scores are sent to be trained as factory workers.
Where brains and potential scores once mattered the most, now only a fight ranking and the colour of your hair indicate social status. Where food was once abundant and gourmet, now there each student is fed goop through dirty nozzles and, worse, sedatives every breakfast and lunch.
Facilitators teach from behind the bars of a cage, and students are hooked up to EMDs that deliver electrical shocks whenever they displease their facilitators.
Jackson naturally doesn’t take any of this well and faces the expected problems fitting in.
This is where first-time author C.J. Harper’s lack of experience can be seen. It takes a very fine balancing act to allow a character to be arrogant and irritating yet still elicit the reader’s sympathy. Harper doesn’t walk this tightrope very well: Most of the time, I found Jackson to be immature, irritating and condescending, even when people were trying to help him. While he wasn’t all bad, he didn’t make me totally root for him either.
Fortunately, Harper’s creation of Kay, a tough girl who winds up befriending and helping Jackson, does much better and manages to balance some of Jackson’s shortcomings.
The dystopian future the story is set in is actually quite intriguing although rather underdeveloped despite Harper’s decent efforts at providing relevant historical background.
The social and political system actually brought to mind George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Not that you could even begin to compare the two books, but there are definitely echoes of the totalitarian ideology from that classic novel in The Disappeared.
There is a revelation, of course, related to why anyone would want to “disappear” Jackson in the first place. Experienced readers might be able to make a fairly educated guess early on in the novel; certainly, for me, the twist just kind of fell flat.
Similarly, a poignant moment involving a character who is obviously meant to be the plucky adorable one just didn’t come off as well as it could and should have.
The ending itself hangs a little because, yes, my friends, there is a sequel: The Wilderness, expected out next February. I won’t be holding my breath waiting for it, though.
I am going to make a rather strange recommendation, however. I think The Disappeared would actually make a decent, more entertaining and less heavy-going read for youths to prepare and introduce them to Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. So, teachers and parents, you might want to take note of this book for that purpose.
Otherwise, I feel there are better choices of dystopian future young adult books out there.
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