School's Out: Death Ray review
Posted 17 April 08 by Scott Andrews(I know it’s bad to review your own reviews, but I really cheered when I read this, because finally someone really GOT it.)
The inevitable comparison with any story of this sort is with schoolboys-on-the-rampage tale The Lord of the Flies. But, to be honest, the only similarity here is that it’s centred on a group of boys. School’s Out is irreverent, blackly humorous, violent and generally good fun. It’s never going to be held up as a literary classic, but it is thoroughly enjoyable.
The narrator and hero, Lee Keegan, is one of the survivors of a flu virus that wipes out around 90% of the planet’s population; knowing that his soldier father has the right blood type to have also survived, he remains at school waiting for his dad to return from Iraq. As other pupils and a handful of teachers return to the school, so does the school bully, and things turn violent. As the school is private, it has all sorts of handy things, like an army cadets’ group and a stock of old rifles – just what a group of high-minded boys need in a post-apocalyptic world.
You might be put off by the fact that this is a story set in a school, with mostly very young protagonists. It doesn’t really matter; the book is about action rather than deep and meaningful depictions of teenage angst. The tale reads like a black comedy; the nearby town is run by tweed-clad fascists and religious extremists, who are as determined to take control as anyone else. While there is a lot of gore and plenty of killings, the violence is never disturbing. In that respect you could liken it to the film Dog Soldiers; blood by the bucketload but not exactly nasty.
You could give this book to older teenagers without fear. And to be honest, most high-school pupils will have probably read worse or seen worse in film.
Foolish but fun!
Three stars (out of five)
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