The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, vol. 1: The Pox Party by MT Anderson (reviewed by Adam Sayre *AND* Lauren TenCate)

OUR FIRST EVER DOUBLE REVIEW! Whoo! (do you want to review books with a friend? This can be a great chance to get both your voices heard...even if you disagree!)

ADAM:
From the author of Feed comes the peculiar tale of Octavian. Set in and around Boston as the Revolution begins to take its first breaths, Octavian is housed at the Novangelian College of Lucidity and is part of an ongoing science experience attempting to find out whether or not "Negroes" are as intelligent as "Whites." Then the college suddenly changes hands, and the experiment takes a turn for the worse. Having journeyed from the faraway country of Africa, all Octavian's mother, Cassiopeia, wants, is a safe home for her son. And that's exactly what he doesn't get.

LAUREN:
The Pox Party by MT Anderson was a really good book. It was really interesting. It's about a young "Negro" boy named Octavian living far from his homeland in a house of scientists, as they experiment. Eventually with the help of his friend, the servant Pro Bono, he escapes. Out in the real world he stumbles on a bunch of people who like him for who he is. Unfortunately, the scientists capture him, but luck is on his side. The scientists turn on one another and the one who actually cares about Octavian for who he is, not because he's the experiment, takes him. The only bad things about this book was that at times it got a little difficult to figure out what was going on because of the language the author used and it got little dull at times. The things that I really enjoyed was the fact there was plenty of turns in the plot and that the middle of the book was written in letters. That was cool. It was a very serious book, though, all things considered. I thought it was a pretty good book.

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Thanks Lauren and Adam for ALL your reviews and for taking the time to read and review a challenging book that is one of my *all time* favorites! Yay!

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