Stefan Petrucha’s “The Rule of Won” is full of
minute twists
and turns. It follows the identifiable life of a sixteen year old
procrastinator in high school. Drunk with romance, he follows the
will of
his girlfriend and ends up joining a cult. At first, the notion
of
obtaining all of his fondest wishes with just positive thinking
inebriates
him. The real action comes in when his girlfriend ends up falling
for the
leader of the cult dubbed The Rule.
Suspense heightens when members of the cult have their fondest wishes
come
true--difficult teachers leave on convalescence, expense video games
come to
fruition, and whole wings of the school are rebuilt. All of these
come
from the cult’s leader whom is too concerned with being accepted; he
provides
for his classmates in the only way he knows how: appeasement.
Such avid
characterization makes the story that much more believable.
Later in the plot, Caleb meets the school
newspaper staff who give his incriminating
evidence on the
cult’s leader. This section is quite intriguing, although the
reader is
left wanting more. No description of the staff’s “office”
headquarters is
given. Also, when the staff breaks into the cult leader’s house,
the
author does not expound. Imaginations of readers take over, but
it would
have been nice to read about those particularly enticing scenes more
in-depth. The only equivocal part of the book that is successful
is the
prologue and epilogue pertaining to the cult leader’s sister.
Mysterious
artwork that deals with the paranormal leaves just enough curiosity
while not
propelling the novel into the sci-fi category.
Eerie lessons are learned towards the end of the novel as there is a
brouhaha
between Caleb and the cult’s leader. Copious events ensue as
Caleb tries
to discover both his purpose and reason for being. This book is
excellent
for young readers since it juxtaposes teen angst with the globally
faddish
craze called positive thinking. The overall tone of the novel is
blithe
yet escalates as the novel progresses. It is definitely a
page-turner as
readers wonder what will become of the run of the mill teenage boy
quarreling
with an increasingly popular cult of juveniles that want an easy way
out in
life and will go to extraordinary means to stop anyone whom gets in
their way.