OUTLAW SCHOOL

In Ore’s (Gaia’s Toys, 1995, etc.) grim, chilling, brilliantly extrapolated, all-too-probable near-future, society is rigidly stratified by class; in state schools, middle-class children, especially girls, may not be as clever, articulate, or assertive as their social superiors. Girls are pressured into becoming Judicious—Judas—girls: they have one eye replaced with an implanted surveillance device, through which potential husbands can observe. Clever, nonconformist Jayne soon falls afoul of the school authorities and is put on stupefying drugs. To get off the drugs, she could become a Judas girl; instead, she gets pregnant and is sent to a psychiatric hospital where misbehaving patients are forced into cyberia (Virtual Reality). Others, like ex-Judas girl Alice, stagger from crisis to crisis. When Jayne is forced to assist with restraining other patients—she has to work to help defray the cost of her stay—she decides she must find a way out. Rich, drunken philanthropist Ocean shows her elements of math and programming, and offers her an opportunity to attend college. After her baby is born (she never sees him), Jayne enters the world of the Outlaw School. Teaching without a government license is illegal; with a license, you may teach only what the government approves and considers appropriate, in an approved and appropriate manner. Illegal Jayne moves from assignment to assignment, her clients whores, drudges, social misfits, the abused, and system rejects with their wrecked, desperate lives. Inevitably, she comes to the attention of the News Agency, the system’s Thought Police.

Shelve this one alongside 1984 and The Color Purple: it’s that good. It’s also unremittingly harrowing. Read it anyway.