I read this book in class for an assignment, and found most of the book to be enjoyable, but some parts to be absolutely astonishing. Some of the chapters I had to skip and have a friend summarize for me because the pages were just too gruesome to bare. Octavian and his mother are brutally beaten and attacked. Octavian is forced into a mask and is violently ill, choking on his own vomit... but, besides the few innapropriate and disgusting scenes, the book was very informational, and an ok read.

The language is not difficult. It is very well written, but I cannot see how most people would have problems. Honestly, it's appalling how poorly people can read. I do have to say that the commonsense people are right to say that kids may not be interested in it though. I still can't say if I like it, because it really suprised me. I'll probably have to read it again to have a definite opinion. It is great to see that there is writing talent for teens out there. Serious drivel has been published lately and I was beginning to lose hope that someone could write.

Challenges well-loved myths about America: slavery is an ugly, hypocritical truth during the push for "liberty"; economic/market concerns interfered with the nation's ethical considerations; the Enlightenment had an ugly irrational side; the Revolution was not quite so clean as "good guys beat bad guys" (e.g., England may have been more enlightened than the colonies about slavery); etc. I think this is a wonderful development, because it gets us to think critically about those glossy myths, but these much-needed epiphanies could be painful for a reader who believes that America is exceptional and exclusively good. This novel will also help build strong context/content knowledge, but could be a huge struggle for a reader who has a shaky grasp of history and/or geography, and especially one not familiar with the often-beautiful but syntactically dense and vocabulary-rich 18th century style, which Anderson uses to great effect.