The Game by Monica Hughes

Reviewed by Lori

Game (Previously Titled: Invitation To The Game)
Title: The Game (Previously Titled: Invitation to the Game)

Author: Monica Hughes

Perma-Bound Cat#: 157695

Description: An adventure/survival story set in the future as teenagers are either assigned jobs or unemployed status when they graduate from high school.

*** Canadian ***

 Rubric Rating: Level 2: Like It

Why I Read It: I was looking for a dystopian novel by a Canadian and this book was enticing.  I also read some of Hughes' other books and quite liked them.

Lori's Notes:  After being educated in a government school, Lisse and seven of her friends end up as "unemployeds" living in an inhospitable "DA" (designated area).  When they hear about "the game" they do everything they can to get invited.  A good read but further explanation as to some of the book's issues would have gone a long way, for example: Why couldn't the government get rid of the robots after the population rebounded?  Despite the number of questions I had after I finished the book, it was still a good read.  The story ended well and left you with a sense of hope.

Recommended Readers: The book is short and would be ideal for whole class study. Grade 7 and up.

Themes: Dystopian, Friendship, Big Brother, Environment, Over Population, Employment, Personal Rights and Freedoms, Coming of Age, New Worlds.

Cross-Genre Links:
Movie: Blade Runner (1982)
Movie: Office Space (1999)
Music: Computer took my job by Maurice John Vaughn
Web Search: Technological Unemployment
News: Will a Robot Take Your Job? Posted by Gary Marcus, The New Yorker

Possible Discussion or Essay Topics: 

  • Why doesn't the Government eliminate automation in favour of human production?
  • Why send the tribe to the new world without anything from Earth?
  • The skill sets possessed by the group members are amazingly adequate for their new lives,  do you think this is accidental?
  • Why don't the rich participate in the game?
  • At the end of the novel we see that the story is Lisse's documentation of what has happened to the group.  Why is it important for Lisse to keep this record?

 Other Titles by Monica Hughes:
Hunter in the Dark



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