One of Us

March 19, 2018
One-dimensional characters and offensive clichés mar DiLouie’s (Suffer the Children) disappointing chronicle of rising unrest between “normal” people and a group of disabled children set in Huntsville, Ga., in 1984. In 1968, an incurable sexually transmitted disease caused physical malformations in numerous babies. Some cases were fatal, and the survivors became known as “the plague generation.” Fourteen years later, those children live in the Home; they have been rejected by their parents, mistreated by their caregivers, and shunned by society. Some of the children begin manifesting powers, such as mind control, that could help them take down the “normals” and gain their freedom. After Enoch, a gentle boy, is killed for a crime he didn’t commit, Brain, a caricature of an autistic savant, decides that war is imminent and gathers the children to fight. Inevitably, the government seeks to use the children and their burgeoning powers for its own nefarious purposes. The well-trod tropes of oppression and uprising don’t take on any new life here, and the linkage of
disability, superability, and inhumanity is tiresome and cruel, especially when children are the focus. Any readers who make it through the considerable scenes of carnage likely won’t be satisfied by the pat conclusion. Agent: David Fugate, LaunchBooks Literary.

July 1, 2018

In 1968, a sexually transmitted plague caused severe genetic mutations in newborn babies. Affected children, labeled mutants and monsters, were sequestered in government-run group homes across the country, out of sight but rarely out of mind for those living nearby. In Huntsville, GA, the local pastor preaches that the children are demons heralding the end times, the local farmers take advantage of the cheap forced labor the home provides, and a few local teens try to bridge the gap between the two worlds. When the mutants begin to manifest special powers, the government ships them off to a secret laboratory for experimentation. Some hide their powers and instead begin to plot a revolution. As tension reaches the breaking point, a well-liked mutant is killed for a crime he didn't commit, and his fellow inmates begin their fight for freedom. VERDICT Dilouie (Suffer the Children) delivers a fresh take on the well-worn story of oppression and rebellion. Unfortunately, one-dimensional characters and clichéd dialog clog the story, leaving little room for building empathy. Still, the author's fans will want this.--Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN

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