Scored

Having finished my prior book and short blurb, I have moved on to my latest book title of interest, Scored by Lauren McLaughlin. Once again, I find myself moved towards futuristic novels with a chilling and disturbing premise. I suppose it must have something to do with the cold winter days. My book choices seem to reflect my mood lately, as I look out my window and see a bare, frost-ridden landscape. Chilling you to the core, much like my choices lately. Our newest heroine is Imani LeMonde, and we meet her in a world where your every action is tracked and nothing goes unnoticed. Welcome to surveillance at it's most acute, where your freedom is nonexistent, thanks to camera's watching and analyzing your every move. Your future if you are not wealthy enough to purchase your way into college, depends on your score. The higher the score, the more scholarships you can get to better schools which lead to more job opportunities, and a better future.
No one knows how your score is determined, but everyone knows you need to score in the 90's to be in the scholarship territory. There are a few important rules to follow to help you improve yourself in order to attain a high score, but nothing is set in stone. Your score also dictates your peer group, but every time your score changes, so do your friends. Thus setting up a certain caste system based on numerical value.  Within the novel, we also have the unscored, kids of the wealthy who don't need to bother with the system, or people who refuse to adhere to the rules thus damning themselves to a future without respect or value in this number based society. Taking place mostly within a school, where we see this caste system work its magic in terms of the non-existant interpersonal relationships, Imani Lemonde is challenged by a set of circumstances to question everything she has been taught to believe in. I love the premise, and the story started out promising and then it slowly began to plod along with ethical arguments regarding the system and the have and have nots. I wasn't really thrilled with the ending either, it seemed a bit unfinished, I think because everything began to get caught up in this whirlwind atmosphere of us versus them. Even with the issues, I felt detracted from the novel, I would still suggest it to anyone who loves YA fiction, to read it. It certainly is an interesting idea and a chilling future of what could be.