Book Review: Candor by Pam Bachorz

This is a young adult dystopian. It takes place in a fictional town, Candor, Florida and seems like a great "utopia". We follow Oscar Banks, whose father created this town that has the perfect residents. What these residents don't realize is that they are being controlled by what are called Messages. They are subliminal instructions hidden in music that tell the residents how to act and what to value. Once they have started listening to the messages, they can never stop.

Oscar acts like the perfect example of what his father wanted for all of the children and teens of Candor to be like. They listen to their parents, help the community and focus all of their efforts of their studies. However, Oscar is not what his father believes. Unlike the other residents of this town, he knows about the Messages and has created his own so that he still has his own personality and thoughts. Oscar makes these CDs for other kids that pay him and then he eventually helps them escape the town.

This book has a very interesting plot and includes a bit of a romance as well. It was fascinating to see how this town worked and what Oscar had to do to keep up appearances with his father and how he was able to get past the Messages. However, Oscar wasn't always a very likeable character and could be very judgmental of some of the other characters. I also felt like the romance was an instant love kind of situation which I am not really a fan of.

If you like dystopian books, I would recommend Candor. It's not a very long book and is fast-paced. I flew through it trying to figure out what was going to happen and whether or not Oscar gets found out.