Candor

by Pam Bachorz

Book Overview

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 and is student-body president.

But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, perfect, and compliant through subliminal messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar's built a business sabotaging his father's scheme with messages...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1606841351
• ISBN13: 9781606841358
• Release Date: December 2010
• Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab (R)
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

You won’t be able to put it down. You’ll wanna read it all in one day

A friend recommended this book. A quick read. Keeps you interested. The scientific aspects of it seem pretty accurate. Trust me you will be invested in this book.

Great, fun read

I loved this book and flew through it in a day. Right at the start, the author pulls you right in and doesn't let go until the end. I have to admit that I am a Stepford Wives fan, so that made me interested in the book from reading the jacket - but if you're not, don't let that stop you from getting it. It's fun for anyone who's up for a little rebellion, or doesn't want to have Martha Stewart organizing their closets. Very inventive, very good.

A quick, but satisfying read

Candor was a wonderful debut from author Pam Bachorz! Filled with suspense, secrets, and forbidden romance, Candor grabbed my attention right from the first chapter! From the first time I heard about Candor, I was intrigued by the plot. Candor is The Stepford Wives taken to a whole new level! I could definitely see Candor being offered a movie deal in the future. It has all the elements of an amazing big screen hit! I also loved the ideas and questions that Candor raises about conformity and family relations. This novel seems to have a healthy balance of popular appeal as well as deeper meaning. I'm always a little uncertain when I see books that have a main character that is not the same gender as the author. Perhaps it is unfair of me, but I tend to believe that when it comes to characters, a woman writing a male's point of view simply isn't believeable. Perhaps, that goes more for men writing a female's POV or maybe Pam Bachorz has a gift for understanding the minds of men, but I definitely saw Oscar as realistic. The romance between Oscar and Nia was well written and fit the plot perfectly. Nia and Oscar are both such perfectly flawed characters - their relationship had just the right amount of passion and insecurity.

Chilling dystopian YA novel

The town where CANDOR is set was eerily reminiscent of my in-laws' gated community in Florida, and perhaps that's a hallmark of the very best dystopian fiction. It paints a troubling future world that has some frightening parallels with our own. Bachorz's debut novel is a compelling one, featuring a model community of the future in which subliminal messages help to create "perfect" citizens. Not fitting in is not an option, and when a couple kids challenge that norm, there are grave consequences. I'm not going to say more for fear of introducing spoilers, but I will say this... the ending was a doozy. Note for teachers & librarians: this book has some references that make it more suitable for high school than middle school. It will make an amazing literature circles or book club selection for teens.

Creepy and convincing

Oscar lives in the small, perfect town of Candor, Florida. There, everyone is happy; there's no crime, no ugliness, no bad behavior. Candor is the perfect town for parents with unmanageable teens--two weeks living in luxury and listening to the special music that's piped everywhere--laced with brainwashing Messages--will cure anyone of unruliness. Oscar's father may be the mastermind of it all, but Oscar has everyone fooled. He's careful, and secretly listens to his own Messages and fights back. And he helps others--for a price. But then Nia Silva comes along, making him want to throw caution to the wind... Creepy, engrossing, and completely unforgettable, Candor is one novel that will pull readers in, play with their minds, and refuse to let go. Pam Bachorz's imaginative town where everything and everyone is tightly controlled is fascinating and a bit disturbing at the same time, mainly because it's quite realistic and familiar, and Bachorz's eye for detail and tight plot just make it all the more believable. Oscar is a flawed, honest narrator, but you also can't help but relate to him as well, especially as he struggles to maintain control over the careful, structured world he's built himself. The many supporting, brainwashed characters are also interesting in the sense that despite their minds being altered, a fragment of their former selves still exist, giving them distinguishing quirks and eccentricities, which brings readers back to the whole nature vs. nurture debacle. Bachorz has written an unpredictable, daring novel that will resonate with many teens as they see the same pressures exerted on them by our society, only in extreme measures. Candor is a smart, chilling novel that you won't be able to get out of your head very easily. Cover Comments: This cover--perfect. The lines and lines of identical houses fit in well with the theme of the book, and the orange color and spray paint title each have a special meaning within the book. This cover is not only attention grabbing, but fits the novel to a T.

A brilliant, creepy Debut

Candor is like Lake Woebegone- every day is beautiful, and all the children are above average-- mainly because Oscar's dad has been piping subliminal messages into everyone's head for ages. Oscar's learned to circumvent the messages, but when a new girl moves to town, he has to decide whether to risk everything for love. Strange, wonderfully stilted, and kaleidoscopic, Bachorz digs into the darkness of this creepy little town and leaves you breathless for each new revelation. What's perfect if you have no choice? A question deftly explored in this novel.