Book Review: INSPECTION by Josh Malerman

 

INSPECTION by Josh Malerman  (Del Rey Books, March 2019) Hardcover, 400 pages.   ISBN 1524796999 / 9781524796990

 

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

Boys are being trained at one school for geniuses, girls at another. And neither knows the other exists--until now. The innovative author of Bird Box invites you into a tantalizing world of secrets and lies.

 

J is a student at a school deep in a forest far away from the rest of the world.

 

J is one of only twenty-six students, who think of their enigmatic school's founder as their father. And his fellow peers are the only family J has ever had. The students are being trained to be prodigies of art, science, and athletics, but their life at the school is all they know--and all they are allowed to know.

 

But J is beginning to suspect that there is something out there, beyond the pines, that the founder does not want him to see, and he's beginning to ask questions. What is the real purpose of this place? Why can the students never leave? And what secrets is their father hiding from them?

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, in a school very much like J's, a girl named K is asking the same questions. J has never seen a girl, and K has never seen a boy. As K and J work to investigate the secrets of their two strange schools, they come to discover something even more mysterious: each other.

 

In Inspection, the masterful author of Bird Box crafts a sinister and evocative gender equality anthem that will have readers guessing until the final page.  

 

 

My review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

     This is the third novel by Josh Malerman that I've read. I've enjoyed them all, and each one has been different. The only common denominator is the imagination of Malerman and how he expands and explores his themes. 

 

     Birdbox was a fascinating suspenseful novel about an alleged alien invasion where just viewing the intruders will drive victims to madness and eventual death. (I also really enjoyed the Netflix adaptation.) 

 

     Unbury Carol was a twisted spin on Poe's tales of premature burial. In Malerman's hands, this became a dark fantasy with steampunk western themes. It didn't capture my attention in the same way that Birdbox did and now Inspection has. I didn't empathize as much with any of Unbury Carol's characters and couldn't envision myself reacting to those situations, so I read it as just a straight fantasy tale with horror elements. That was fascinating enough for me. 

 

     It was easier to relate to the characters in Bird Box, and even easier to empathize with both the young male and female middle-grade students in Inspection. It's a disturbing tale of coming-of-age under very restricted conditions. Simply, male and female students are schooled in separate isolated forest "towers" and never permitted knowledge of the opposite sex. 

 

     It's the shared crackpot theory of a wealthy married couple who use their resources to prove their hypothesis through a long-term living experiment. The founders' theory is that intellectual growth is limited by a loss of full focus caused by interest in the opposite sex. The only way to fully explore the potential of future scientists and engineers is to eliminate the possibility of distraction. 

 

     They (D.A.D. and M.O.M.) purchase the children and separate them from their parents soon after birth and then sustain and nurture them in separate enclaves. They purchase an isolated parcel of forest and build two separate facilities with classrooms and housing. None of the male textbooks contain any references to women, and vice versa. All teachers, cooks, and staff are of the same sex. 

 

     Students are identified by letters rather than names. The male facility houses the Alphabet Boys. The female facility houses the Letter Girls. Things work according to the plan with few exceptions until the children reach the age of eleven and twelve, the early stages of puberty, and start to question more - - especially the authority and some really rigid rules. Some curious students on both sides become emboldened enough to explore outside the boundaries until the inevitable meeting of boy and girl occurs. I won't spoil the story by revealing anymore.

 

     What's more important is the coming-of-age story and how the primary characters resolve the internal and external conflict. The ending isn't pretty, but it concludes with a more positive outlook for the deprived students. It's the characterization that kept me going forward with this novel, because things do proceed at a rather slow pace in the first half of the book as Malerman sets up the scenery and exposes us to all aspects of this isolated society. What impresses me most about this book is how natural the dialogue feels. The conversations between the students, the questions asked and their internal thoughts feel real and significant. 

 

     The female students, with most being one year younger than their male counterparts, are more decisive, brave and forceful and are the real instigators whose actions lead to the final resolution. The male students seem more passive, timid and confused by comparison. 

It's interesting that Malerman's two primary characters, the male J and the female K are two consecutive letters of the alphabet, as if they were meant to be together. Perhaps those letters could serve as shorthand for the full names of Jay and Kay. Or is J just short for Josh? 

     The last fifty pages of the book will keep you enthralled, so don't get to that point until you have time to finish the novel. I look forward to more of Malerman and I'm curious to see what new ideas he has to offer in his next book.