Candor by Pam Bachorz

Review of Candor by Pam Bachorz

Synopsis from GoodReads:

In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town’s founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause.

But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant—perfect—through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar’s built a business sabotaging his father’s scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they’re turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks?

Then he meets Nia, the girl he can’t stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more.

Monica’s Review:

Again, I had high hopes for this book.  I’d heard such great things about it.  Sometimes you had to take the reviews (as is the case with this one too) with a grain of salt.  The person reviewing has different experiences in life and in book reading than you.  What seems like a ground breaking, fresh new concept to some, may to others feel and overdone premise.

I think that may be the case with this book.  If it were the first of its kind that I have read I might have thought it more amazing.  It was well written and it was a new take on the brainwashing concept, but only so far as how the brainwashing is done (for me at least).

It does raise the same questions/issues that are brought to mind similar books:  Is having utopia really worth the expense of individual thought/choice, or individuality period?  And who gets to decide what utopia really is?

I didn’t really connect with the main character in this book.  And since it’s told in first person, through the eyes of the main character, Oscar Banks, that made it difficult for me to really immerse myself in his world or be invested in what happened to him.  I did like Nia the new girl in town and I was more invested in what happened to her.

I think the author may have succeeded in what she was trying for with the book, and like I said was really well written and may have achieved the goal Pam Bachorz was aiming for, I’m not sure.  I just wasn’t really as impacted by it as I’d been hoping for.  That may be because I’ve read other books that covered the concept and had characters I was rooting for and deeply invested in. 

When all is said and done, having characters I care about gives urgency and weight to a concept, and ultimately will make or break a book in my mind.

I give Candor 3.5 of 5 stars.