On Wednesday, The Well Deceived blog tour visited my blog and Isaac Kuhnberg shared his author inspirations with us ( see here ) Today, the tour is back and here is my review.
Summary:
A thought-provoking mystery in turns comic and disturbing, set in a country that resembles England in the 1950s, with one crucial difference. No women.
William Riddle is a scholar at Bune, the ancient public school where the sons of Anglia’s first families are prepared for a leading role in society. His first few weeks are a miserable round of bullying and abuse, until he makes a friend: Paul Purkis, son of a government minister. Together they create a grotesque private world, known as Malcaster, populated by criminals and deviants, as an outlet for their contempt for the school and its staff.
Overnight William’s world collapses. He is called into the headmaster’s office and told that his scientist father has committed an unspecified act of treason. William is hauled off to a detention centre to be interrogated. Escaping, he finds refuge in the louche sub-culture of the capital city, and comes to learn that everything he has ever been taught is a complete fabrication.
My review:
The Well Deceived takes place in a country called Anglia, which is like a distorted mirror image of England. The similarities are there, however, one vital difference is the complete absence of women.
Our protagonist, William Riddle, walks us through his story. We see everything through his eyes, the eyes of an intelligent, yet naive teenage boy. From his early days growing up in a nursery in Alba ( Scotland, in this alternate world ) to his fall from grace from the prestigious Bune College.
At this point, I think I should include a trigger warning. William is abused during his school days and the scenes where he describes the abuse and refers to the Bunian Code and the acceptance and at times encouragement of this abuse by the masters, is incredibly distressing.
As we are seeing this world through William's eyes, we only find out what he can tell us. His experience of The First Union, which is an almost cult like practise that teenage boys endure if they are deemed worthy, leaves us with more questions than answers. What exactly happens and why, is alluded to, but left for the reader to come to their own conclusion.
When William's father is arrested for committing a crime ( we don't find out what this is until the very end of the story ) William is taken to a mental institution, where he is interrogated. He escapes and my favourite part of the story begins. At this point I will add that William does not make it easy for him to like us, he is pretentious, stubborn, and often angry, still, what teenage boy isn't guilty of behaving in an antagonistic way at times. Despite all this, I cared about him, I wanted him to be safe, and felt his pain as he stumbled upon some of life's harsher truths. I hoped as he faced one dilemma after another, that around the next corner he would find his happy ever after, or at least encounter a genuine friend who would help him.
Whilst on the run from the authorities and trying to find his father, William is befriended by a journalist, and so we are introduced in more detail to the politics of this extraordinary and terrifying world. We have the ruling Pragmatic party ( akin to the Tories ) and the opposition parties, the Proles, the Plebs and the Worker's Party. William witnesses acts of violence as he travels the country with Mark during the lead up to a general election and realises the truth, that the rich will do anything to keep hold of power, even if that means killing large numbers of innocent people and using the media to subvert the truth.
As we see William struggling both to survive and to make sense of the world he lives in, we are taken to some very dark places. Despite the many distraction on the way, he continues to search for his father, and as we reach the final pages of the book ( after a crazy car ride in which a nemesis from the earliest chapters returns ) we become aware of the fact that Isaac Kuhnberg is isn't going to tie everything up in a neat bow. He is going to leave us wondering whether it isn't just the inhabitants of Anglia who are well deceived, but maybe it's us, the reader too. In the words of the author, the story is a mystery that poses only questions, many of them unanswerable.
The Well Deceived is an unusual, intriguing novel that takes the reader on an uncomfortable journey, and makes us think, makes us question, makes us WANT to question and search for the truth.
Information about the Book
Title: The Well Deceived
Author: Isaac Kuhnberg
Release Date: 15th May 2017
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Format: Paperback
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