What I Am Reading - Human.4

Human.4

Mike Lancaster

240 pages in flimsy paperback.

Ah, February’s pick for OLT book club.  I’m so behind on reviews.

Anyway, last month’s selection brought us another YA book, the second ever read for our book club, and strangely enough selected by the same person that picked our first YA book last year, The Hunger Games.  Human.4 is a very different story from The Hunger Games however.

Kyle is a typical youth from a small town in England.  He spends most of his time playing with friends and trying to figure out the things that are important at the age grouping.  Specifically, the yearly town talent show is approaching and Kyle’s friend Danny is planning on performing.  On the day of the event Danny approaches the stage to begin a feat of hypnotism, Kyle just so happens to be one of the subjects, but did the trick go wrong?  Nothing is as it was supposed to be and everyone else appears hypnotized instead.

It’s a quick easy read (I read it in one sitting), not a lot of depth, not a lot of explanation, but it was enticing enough that we all finished.  If you are looking for a super quick read that’s at least interesting, this might be an adequate selection.

-Spoilers Below-

So how was it received by OLT book club?  Well, a solid 4.5 average from the whole ten of us that completed.  Over here OLT book club uses a 10 point system with one being atrocious and ten a blissful dreamy read.

Here is what we thought:

Th3ee: 4

Dust: 3 (hater)

AndyCoug: 5

Sprocket-T: 5

Tech-D: 5

G$$: 5

Shely-don: 5

SS: 3 (hater)

ELeach: 4

JHylen: 6

Talking straight characters Kyle with the lead role won, but we did have some surprises.  Most notable was that people liked Rodney.  Rodney is this sort of sniveling worthless creature in the onset of the novel that really doesn’t do anything at all throughout the book.  The only reason people even liked this sheep was because there was a touching moment that explains why he is a sniveling sheep.  Fine, fair enough.  Another mention for the other adult in the party, Kate, who actually seemed to be one of the only real decision makers of the group.  Not unrealistic since the other two are children and the only other adult is the aforementioned Rodney.  Danny the hypnotist also got some mentions but it is arguable if Danny from earlier in the book is still Danny near its end and Danny end game/post transformation was what most people liked.

 All of our favorite moments included some device that explained or furthered the plot or scenes in which a lot of action was prevalent.   People’s most notable scene was basically when ‘new’ Danny explained what was going on.  Which was nice because without that little sequence the whole thing would be a mystery. I won’t give away the reveal (even though I said spoilers) but we all kind of were stumped.  Not that it couldn’t happen but that they wouldn’t choose to become part of the current cast so to speak.  We couldn’t really understand why anyone would choose that fate instead of just joining.

I’ll close this out in the words of SS.

“Well, it was a book.”