Rupert Holmes

POTENTIAL SPOILERS INCLUDED

The Four Enquiries:
1) Is this murder necessary?
2) Have you given your target every last chance to redeem themselves?
3) What innocent person might suffer by your actions?
4) Will this deletion improve the life of others?

These are the basic tenets of the entire book. I really enjoyed the concept of this book a great deal. After all, nearly everyone has had a person in their lives who has prompted the statement: "I could kill them." But the truth is very few of us mean that in any real way. Holmes creates a world where saying this can start one on an irrevocable path toward that goal. The "victims" were truly irredeemable and within the realms of the story were no great loss. I do think that some discussion could definitely occur around the fact that one "victim" is redeemed by virtue of being pregnant. From a literary and women's studies standpoint, this could be quite problematic for some readers in a time when being more than an incubator is emphasized.

I did start reading this as a physical book and then switched to an eBook because I got bogged down in the middle of the book. I don't think the story was to blame; sometimes it is just hard to pick up a book after having to put it down for a period of time.… (mere)

What if there was a place you could go to learn how to delete a problematic person from your life? This place would teach you the proper methods to delete someone from existence, so long as the removal of that person would benefit people, no one would truly mourn their loss, and your cause was just. Well, McMasters might be the place for you. The downside is that you will never truly know where McMasters is located. Also, you can never speak of the school once you graduate. And if you fail to complete your thesis, you will also be deleted.

This is the basic premise of this novel, and if a book that purports to teach murder can be considered cozy well, this is it. For some reason I found this to be a comfortable, cozy read, and even though the characters were in danger throughout their McMasters' education, I never felt on the edge of my seat with suspense. And I think that's the main drawback on this book, the reason for 4 stars instead of 5. The subject matter was treated seriously, but certainly lighter than it could have been to convey a proper sense of danger. But it was still an interesting read and I'm glad it stumbled across it at Goodwill.… (mere)

DNF at 26%. The presentation is too choppy and the characters are all irritatingly stupid. Especially our MC. And perhaps the school rules become clearer later in the book, but I don’t care enough to find out. (A school that nobody’s heard about has paying students and sponsors? And others get kidnapped to attend but can only leave by death or graduating. The staff boast about simulations of deadly situations, but do nothing when students try to actively kill one another. Including a stranger they have never met. Or how about the fact that students seem to attend classes to learn all manners of murder, even though they are allegedly only allowed one kill in the real world that needs to be planned and executed flawlessly. Zero. Logic.)

I was already bored but then I heard the “motivation and justification” for Cliff’s future murder. It just further proves the point that there is no point.… (mere)