The Predicteds by Christine Seifert (November Pick)

"We wanted to know what makes a good kid good and a bad kid bad. Can you blame us for that? We found an astoundingly, marvelously simple answer: The brain isn't so much a complicated machine as it is a crystal ball. If you look into it, you will see everything you want to know."
-Dr. Mark Miliken, senior researcher at Utopia Laboratories

Who will it be?

Will the head cheerleader get pregnant?
Is the student council president a secret drug addict?

The whole school is freaking out about PROFILE, an experimental program that can predict students' future behavior.

The only question Daphne wants answered is whether Jesse will ask her out...but he's a Predicted, and there's something about his future he's not telling her.

It's that time of month again... No, not that time, silly. It's time to review our book club pick. Did you get a chance to read it? What did you think?

I have to admit, it wasn't what I expected. I thought it would have a little more of a Dystopian feel to it, even though I'd heard that it wasn't really that kind of story. I still liked the story in the end, which is the important part, right?

I know I say this a lot, but how do people come up with these ideas?? It's so bizarre to think that, in reality, we probably aren't that far off from the concept of this book coming to pass. Children (ideal age is 14-15) are being "profiled" based on test results that determine whether or not they are going to commit a violent crime or give in to addictive behaviors. The ones that test positive for these behaviors are segregated from everyone else and treated as less than human.

To me, this book was more about human nature than anything else. Philosophers have argued that in general, "men in the mass are naturally and fundamentally selfish, quarrelsome, power hungry, cruel and perverse" (Thomas Hobbes theory of "State of Nature"). The Predicteds put that theory to the test.

So now I'm wondering, What are your thoughts about this book? Did it end the way you thought it would? What would you have done in Daphne's situation? In Jesse's?

I hope you enjoyed this book. Like I said, it wasn't what I was expecting, but I liked it just the same.

Happy Reading!