Like a diluted version of The Chocolate War
, this British novel concerns a freshman boy singled out by a secret society of upperclassmen who reign over the students at Holminster High. Elliot arrives at the school with numerous strikes against him: his father is clinically depressed, his mother works at two menial jobs to keep them in their ramshackle apartment, his uniform is second-hand, and Elliot himself is trying to work his way out of his role as perpetual victim at his previous school. To his surprise, the elite group, the Guardians, express an interest in him, not to dunk his head in a toilet but rather to recruit him as one of their successors. The book moves along too predictable an arc, fueled by cardboard characterizations. Tutored by the Guardians, who are obsessed with George Orwell's 1984
and the fantasies of power it has inspired in them, Elliot comes to power, but simultaneously (and secretly) befriends one of the Guardians' most prominent victims, remembering what it was like to be on the receiving end of cruelty. The clearly foreseeable act of redemption at the end undermines the story's credibility. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)
