Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha - OPTIONAL


Petrucha, Stefan The Rule of Won, 240 p. (approx), Walker (Bloomsbury), 2008.

HS - OPTIONAL

Slacker Caleb has been accused of destroying the school gym and his girlfriend is barely speaking to him. In order to regain her affections, he agrees to join a group called a Crave, which is dedicated to the "Rule of Won", or sending positive thoughts out into the universe in order to get the things that they want. The leader of the Crave, Ethan, seems to really believe and successfully leads the group through two successful "imanifests", but Caleb suspects that the circumstances were a little fishy, a little manipulated. His doubts and challenges begin to annoy the other Cravers and when he becomes defiant, they become hostile.

At first as I was reading, I kept thinking that The Wave by Strasser is the quintessential book about the power of a cult in school, but I also realize that new books can be written about the same subject. Will this replace The Wave? I don't think so. Does it have its place in your library? Yes, in a larger collection.

Cindy, Library-Teacher.

1 comment:

Stefan Petrucha said...

Thanks for the write-up Cindy! I enjoyed The Wave as well -- that, based on a true story, was directly about fascism. RULE is more focused on consumer-spiritualism as in the hugely popular The Secret. Not intended to replace The Wave in any way! All best, Stefan P.