Quietly provocative and haunting.

A lot of people hate this book. It's offensive! Despicable! Depressing! The characters are monsters! I wonder if that's what people said about the Grimm fairy tales back when they were first published?

great book, makes you think about it after reading

very weird, gets increasingly stranger and yet satisfying - ending works

Came across this little book while searching for books on philosophy. I was surprised that a fiction book came up in my search. I am so glad that it did. The lengths to which a group of classmates go in order to prove to their friend (who has denounced the meaning of life) that there IS actually meaning and purpose in life is thought-provoking. It is also, as the book progresses, very disturbing. As a high school teacher struggling through a philosophy mini-unit, I found myself wishing that I had a class set of this book - it would surely have fueled many terrific discussions.

The inside flap of the book jacket states this book is the Lord of the Flies for the 21st century. I'd have to agree with that. This is an unusual and intense story.

As a 7th grade student I found this book highly interesting yet quite disturbing. This is classified as a young adults book but I would recommend this book for a 15 year old and up for the content. Other than that I absolutely love this book. :)

Engrossing examination of the existentialist credo "nothing means anything" or gruesome tale of teenage sociopaths? "Nothing" is both. One day Pierre Anthon walks out of class declaring that life has no meaning. Situating himself in a nearby plum tree, he continues to denounce that anything has meaning, driving his classmates to go to desperate means to prove him wrong. Interesting, yet still somehow gratuitous.