Panopticon

by Jenni Fagan

[Beth C.]

It is absolutely rare that I don't finish a book - it some respects, especially when it comes to reviewing, I view it as a failure of my own. I will put a book down 5 or 6 times and force myself to go back to it before I finally give up. Sadly, The Panopticon is one of those books for me.

In the book, we meet Anais Hendricks. That is not her real name, but it's the latest one she goes by. Anais is known to the law for a variety of problems, the latest being the possible beating of a cop (who is in a coma and may or may not survive). While the investigation goes on, Anais has been sent to The Panopticon - basically, a children's home, where she tries to survive on her own terms and maybe even prevail against "The Experiment".

I love the characters in the book - they are so heartbreakingly human, each of them with issues of their own. What I don't like about the book is that the story is so static. I finally gave up on page 203 (out of 282), feeling like absolutely nothing is moving forward. I don't expect a lot of action or anything like that, but I do need some kind of momentum propelling the characters forward, else what is the point? It just feels to me like everything is going 'round and 'round. I suppose some could argue that this is done on purpose to echo what takes place in Anais' head, but there is a limit to how far that particular plan can really go. I found it more and more frustrating as the story went on.

I think the character of Anais is a terrific one - she is smart, she is strong, and she is unique. Unfortunately, the lack of any forward movement within the story itself detracted so significantly from the story that i just could not bring myself to finish it.