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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A slacker steps up for what's right, April 28, 2009
This review is from: The Rule of Won (Hardcover)
Review by Jill Williamson
Caleb Dune is a major slacker. He lives to laze around. His overachieving girlfriend, Vicky, is not only running for class president, she has read a book called The Rule of Won that showed her a new way to live successfully. And she is bent on getting Caleb to read it too.
Caleb gives in to make her happy. He's not sure he buys the whole thing, but, being a slacker, it's easier to join the club and make Vicki happy, than to take a stand against it and face her anger. So Caleb joins up. He wears the button proclaiming him a member and chants along with the other club members as they try to get what they want by wishing for it.
When things start to work out, Caleb gets excited. This is the ultimate slacker way of life. If he can simply wish for things and have them happen, he'll never have to do anything in life. But things start to get out of control. People get hurt, and Caleb discovers some things about the club that upset him. Can he simply turn his back on The Rule or will he have to take a stand for what is right, even if it means doing something hard?
I really enjoyed this book. It was funny and true of human nature to not only follow the crowd, but to look for easy answers in life. Caleb got sucked into the cult by simply wanting to make his girlfriend happy. It was creepy--and sometimes hysterical--to read the things the members of the cult posted on the message board. I didn't like the swearing in the book, and because of it, couldn't recommend it on my blog, which was a shame. Swearing in books for teens doesn't make them more relatable, it just turns them off to certain people and limits the book's audience. Regardless, the message of this book is a good one of you don't mind the swearing.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Power of Won, September 2, 2008
This review is from: The Rule of Won (Hardcover)
"There's talk on the street; it sounds so familiar
Great expectations, everybody's watching you
People you meet, they all seem to know you
Even your old friends treat you like you're something new"
(Eagles)
There's a new book in town, and the secret is out.
Even a dedicated underachiever like Caleb Dunne submits to peer pressure (or rather, girlfriend pressure) and reluctantly finds himself a part of a rapidly expanding school club based on the new book "The Rule of Won".
The thing is, the club members seem pretty obsessed by the teachings of the book, the latest big thing to hit Screech Neck High School in recent memory, and the self proclaimed leader Ethan Skinson is pulling out all the stops.
And then there's Ethan's sister Alyssa, who has a secret of her own, and the guys from the Newspaper Club who are ready to write an expose against all odds.
Caleb is happy to go with the flow and ride the tide if it will make Vicky happy, but when things start getting out of control in a big way, he has to decide whether it's time to take a stand against the group, and Ethan.
A high school tale about peer pressure and the difficulties to be expected when one dares to be different; the story also has a nice little touch of the supernatural to spice it up, and is recommended for readers from age 12 and up.
Rated: 4.5 stars
Amanda Richards, September 2, 2008
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Imanifest destiny, December 28, 2009
This review is from: The Rule of Won (Hardcover)
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could have anything you wanted just by wishing for it badly enough? Just imagine what a whole group could achieve by wishing, chanting, and believing - be it good or bad. You'd think a self-acclaimed slacker would go for something like this like gangbusters, but Caleb Dunne knows better. After he was wrongly blamed for the destruction of his school's new gym, all the wishing in the world didn't make any of his classmates believe his claims of innocence, much less like him any longer. Only one thing could ever make him join any school club, especially one built around the teachings of the mega-popular book The Rule of Won - and that would be a girl. He finally gives in and reads this book his girlfriend Vicky is so wildly excited about; he joins the school's new Rule of Won "Crave" just to make her happy; he even gets excited when the club's early attempts at "imanifesting" actually succeed. Heck, who wouldn't be excited to see the school basketball team actually win a game for a change? All too quickly, though, Caleb sees the dark side to this group-think mentality run amuck. Does he have the courage to stand up against it, though? It could mean losing his girlfriend and isolating himself once again from classmates who have begun to finally accept him. It might even put him - and others - in danger.
The leader of the Screech Neck High Crave is Ethan Skinson, a new transfer student who Caleb immediately labels a little "too" - a little too clean-cut, a little too straight-laced, etc. (including, as far as Caleb is concerned, a little too "freaky"). After he joins the Crave, he has to add "a little too attractive to Vicky" to the list - but that isn't why he eventually turns on the group (well, it's not the only reason, anyway). There's his other friend Erica, whose desperation to pass algebra turns her into a chanting fool who stops studying altogether, putting all of her trust in Ethan and The Rule of Won. More than anything else, though, it's the consequences of the group's success. As long as they get what they want, the Cravers don't seem to care if anyone gets hurt along the way, and those who dare criticize the increasingly powerful group set themselves up for bullying or worse.
The dangers of group-think litter the landscape of history, and a high school makes for a perfect microcosm in which to illustrate the dangers of one group gaining influence and refusing to tolerate any level of dissent. Perhaps the best example of this is an old after-school special called The Wave, which left a deep and lasting impression on me and, I have to believe, many others who saw it. The Rule of Won, though, takes this message to places that even The Wave did not dare to tread and, I daresay, will leave quite a lasting impression on many of its readers.
The book is tailor-made for its primary audience of Young Adult readers, as Stefan Petrucha has long been a prolific writer of teen and tween fiction as well as graphic novels. While no adult would dare claim to understand teenagers, Petrucha certainly has a knack for appreciating and communicating the vagaries of teen angst, and that makes his characters almost as genuine as any group of high school kids you'll run across in real life. Petrucha also knows how to tell a darn good story, making The Rule of Won a hard book to put down. Always interesting and eventful, oftentimes quite comical, this powerful and thought-provoking novel offers plenty of food for thought even as it entertains. Even young adults who don't normally enjoy reading might be surprised at just how quickly and deeply they are drawn in to this powerful and fascinating storyline.
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