Candor - Pam Bachorz

Candor - Pam Bachorz

Pages: 249
Publisher: Egmont
Release Date: 22nd September 2009

Everything is perfect in the town of Candor, Florida.

Teens respect their elders, do their chores, and enjoy homework…because they’re controlled by subliminal messages.

Oscar Banks, the son of the town’s founder, is the model of perfection: class president, top student, shining example. But it’s only a disguise. Unlike all the other Candor teens, he knows about the Messages, and he fights them with his counter programming.

Only Oscar knows how to get kids out of Candor - for a price. Nobody suspects that he smuggles the richest new kids out of town before they change. It’s risky: if Oscar were caught, he’d be sent straight to the Listening Room, where the most resistant kids are wiped clean.

When Nia moves into town, Oscar is smitten by her tart attitude and ability to see through his perfect-boy front. He can’t stand to see her changed by the Messages. Now he must decide to help Nia escape Candor and lose her forever, or keep her close and risk exposure.

Candor is the captivating debut from Pam Bachorz. Filled with love, hate, survival and everything in between.

The concept of brainwashing - or mind control - is utterly terrifying. Even the thought of being made to think a certain way while I have no idea it’s happening makes me shudder. But that’s what life is like in Candor. The change between the real person and the perfect Candor teen is likely to be something that every reader of Candor will take away with them. And it got worse! The parents of these brainwashed children knew and actually sought it out for themselves and their families. It really is a horrifying concept.

But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Oscar Banks. He knew about the messages and heard them all the time, but fought them everyday while maintaining his perfect faç ade and helping others get out of Candor. That was one of my favourite things about him. And that he’s not completely good. Though what he sacrificed for Nia is one of the most amazing and utterly heartbreaking parts of Candor.

I loved Candor and I recommend it to absolutely everybody and anybody. It really is that good!

Sophie