Review: The Rule of Won

Title: The Rule of Won
Author: Stefan Petrucha
Publication date: September 2nd, 2008

Summary:
The secret of The Rule of Won is simple, yet its power has been suppressed for generations. The universe is one of infinite abundance—ask, and you shall receive.

Umm, yeah right. Meet Caleb Dunne, slacker extraordinaire. Caleb prefers to glide through life with the minimal amount of effort, so he isn’t too jazzed when his overachieving girlfriend, Vicky, convinces him to join a new school club based on a controversial book, The Rule of Won. Slackers don’t join school clubs, do they? As The Rule gains popularity, though, the club members start to gain power within the school. From dark posts on the club’s online message board to all-out threats in the hallways, it becomes apparent that the group is getting out of control. For slacker Caleb, though, the only thing worse than doing something is not doing something.
Darkly funny and exceptionally thought-provoking, The Rule of Won, inspired by the ideas behind books like the runaway hit The Secret, shines a light on the dangers of group thinking and the inner desires that can sometimes get the best of us all.

Review:
At first I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I'm so glad that I read it. I was really confused at the start though, because I thought that the whole idea of the club was supposed to be based around THIS book, so it was like I was reading about a club based on the book that I was reading. I was wondering, how does that work?!?! Then I realized as I got past the first few chapters that I had totally misunderstood it and that it was of course referring to a different book titled The Rule of Won. Confusing? I thought so. Maybe that's just me though.

But besides that, I really enjoyed The Rule of Won. I like the whole idea of it, because it was different and exciting. A club that's based on a book that states you can have whatever you want as long as you wish for it hard enough? That's pretty interesting in itself. And it's not every day that you get to read books about clubs that practically turn into creepy cults, right? So that was one thing that I really liked - the fact that it wasn't a story I had already read over and over before with only slight variations. It was something new, and that kept me interested and constantly wondering what would happen next.

There was one thing that I didn't quite understand, though. Ethan's (the leader in the club) little sister Alyssa, would draw pictures of things that they wanted to happen. And more often than not, they would happen. It was like Ethan was using Alyssa in order to make people think their wishes were actually working. I don't understand her power or whatever it is, though. Maybe I'm not supposed to?

The Rule of Won really got me thinking, what would happen if that was how things worked? If you just wished hard enough and focused all of your energy into getting something, and that made it happen? That would be kind of scary. This is definitely a book that I would recommend if you're looking for something that's a bit different from your average book.

Characters: 8/10
Plot: 9/10
Originality: 9/10
Writing: 9/10
Overall grade: A-