A review by sonofthunder
The Barcode Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn

3.0

Picked this up on a whim when I was at Half Price Books and although the story is fairly simplistic, was a fun read! The ideas in this novel (that a global corporate organization would seek to slowly strip freedoms from people and exert its dominance, with most people welcoming such) are not new ones, but it fascinated me to read this book because it was written (what seems to be) a long time ago now, back in 2004. I would argue that in some ways society has become ever more accepting of corporations and governments tracking and controlling us, even if the mechanisms used are softer and more invisible chains than outlined in this book. We don't have an actual bar code tattooed on our arms (yet!) though we have done far more to offer our freedoms to those who do not care for our good. This book tells a cautionary tale, and I would argue it is even more relevant for us to listen to it now. The moral is most unsubtle, but sometimes subtlety is wasted on the willfully ignorant. I did laugh when reading this one at the slang used by the kids. Some of it seemed over-the-top but some of it seemed almost normal and I couldn't quite tell if the author made all the slang up or if some of it was in vogue back in '04 (when I was in high school!) The fact that I can't remember scares me just a bit. The ending of this book gets a bit weird and the science side of my brain got very confused as things got much more mystical and weird than I was expecting! Still, a fun book.