Saddened because I think the book deserves better and surprised for similar reasons. I'm rather surprised that The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing should be marketed to a young adult audience. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother - a princess in exile from a faraway land - are the only persons in their household assigned names. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. This deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.
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