Book Review - The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha
Category Book Review Stefan Petrucha The Rule of Won
One of the review titles that I opted to accept for a recreational read was the young adult novel The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha. I'm often hesitant to venture into the YA genre, as 1) I'm definitely not a "young adult" any more (at least based on the calendar... "immature adult" may still apply), and 2) any lessons that are trying to be taught are often no longer applicable. But the premise tweaked my interest, and the tweak was accurate in this case... The Rule of Won is an entertaining read, with solid writing and a message that a few more adults should pay attention to...
The main character, Caleb Dunne, is a high school student who has turned slacking into an art form. Anything worth doing is worth doing as easily as possible, and there's not much worth doing in the first place. The flip side is his girlfriend, Vicky Bainbridge, who is a classic overachiever... running for school office, involved in everything, and is pushing Dunne to clean up his act. This motivation comes to a head when a fellow classmate, Ethan Skinson, starts a club to discuss and live life by the principles in the book The Rule of Won. Basically, if you want something, you can use mesmories to imanifest your crave. The group starts out small, and sets a crave to get money to rebuild the school's gym (which Dunne is accused of ruining the first time it was being rebuilt). When this event actually comes to pass, the group picks up momentum, and sets a crave to have their high school win a basketball game (which they haven't done all year) against the state champions. Strangely, this too happens. Vicky is smitten with Ethan, Dunne is on the fence as to whether this is all for real, and in short order nearly the whole school has gotten on the bandwagon. This "groupthink" bothers Dunne to no end, and he sees how it's quickly becoming a case of "you're either for us or against us". When a teacher is seriously injured in a car accident due to the crave of everyone needing to pass an algebra test (that he's no longer able to give due to the wreck), Dunne confronts Ethan with some facts, and that leads to a physical showdown between the two, with nearly the entire school body imanifesting Dunne getting the snot beat out of him...
Petrucha based the story off of the best-selling book The Secret, which proposes that you can have anything in the universe you want just by imagining it as already belonging to you. He pokes plenty of holes in the concept, as well as showing what happens when greed, ego, and groupthink start to drive what you crave. I really enjoyed the wisecracking dialogue of Caleb Dunne, as well as his emotional turmoil over Vicky's infatuation with Ethan, and his own growing attraction to a goth girl he's never really gotten to know that well. Great characters, and perfect pacing. The moral of learning to think for oneself really does transcend the YA audience, and I can think of a number of adults who would enjoy this (and a number who should also read it for the lessons). If you get the opportunity to pick this up for your kid (or yourself), I think you'll be pleased with your selection...
One of the review titles that I opted to accept for a recreational read was the young adult novel The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha. I'm often hesitant to venture into the YA genre, as 1) I'm definitely not a "young adult" any more (at least based on the calendar... "immature adult" may still apply), and 2) any lessons that are trying to be taught are often no longer applicable. But the premise tweaked my interest, and the tweak was accurate in this case... The Rule of Won is an entertaining read, with solid writing and a message that a few more adults should pay attention to...
The main character, Caleb Dunne, is a high school student who has turned slacking into an art form. Anything worth doing is worth doing as easily as possible, and there's not much worth doing in the first place. The flip side is his girlfriend, Vicky Bainbridge, who is a classic overachiever... running for school office, involved in everything, and is pushing Dunne to clean up his act. This motivation comes to a head when a fellow classmate, Ethan Skinson, starts a club to discuss and live life by the principles in the book The Rule of Won. Basically, if you want something, you can use mesmories to imanifest your crave. The group starts out small, and sets a crave to get money to rebuild the school's gym (which Dunne is accused of ruining the first time it was being rebuilt). When this event actually comes to pass, the group picks up momentum, and sets a crave to have their high school win a basketball game (which they haven't done all year) against the state champions. Strangely, this too happens. Vicky is smitten with Ethan, Dunne is on the fence as to whether this is all for real, and in short order nearly the whole school has gotten on the bandwagon. This "groupthink" bothers Dunne to no end, and he sees how it's quickly becoming a case of "you're either for us or against us". When a teacher is seriously injured in a car accident due to the crave of everyone needing to pass an algebra test (that he's no longer able to give due to the wreck), Dunne confronts Ethan with some facts, and that leads to a physical showdown between the two, with nearly the entire school body imanifesting Dunne getting the snot beat out of him...
Petrucha based the story off of the best-selling book The Secret, which proposes that you can have anything in the universe you want just by imagining it as already belonging to you. He pokes plenty of holes in the concept, as well as showing what happens when greed, ego, and groupthink start to drive what you crave. I really enjoyed the wisecracking dialogue of Caleb Dunne, as well as his emotional turmoil over Vicky's infatuation with Ethan, and his own growing attraction to a goth girl he's never really gotten to know that well. Great characters, and perfect pacing. The moral of learning to think for oneself really does transcend the YA audience, and I can think of a number of adults who would enjoy this (and a number who should also read it for the lessons). If you get the opportunity to pick this up for your kid (or yourself), I think you'll be pleased with your selection...