I read this one some time ago, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little hazy on the details... What I do remember quite clearly is the emotional reaction I had to it, which is the reason I picked it. At first blush, 'The Chocolate War' seems like it's going to be a nice, standard triumph-against-adversity type of story. After all, anything with the word "chocolate" in the title has to be nice, right?
You can see where this is going, can't you? Yup, you guessed it! 'The Chocolate War' is actually a nice, standard tri- no, I'm kidding, it's horrible. I'm not going to reveal the ending to you, but it is depressing. At least I thought so. I'll accept that I may be more easily depressed than most people, but not until you've read the novel and can honestly say you didn't find it depressing.
In it, we follow the path of one student as he attempts to stand up to the secret society that effectively governs his school. We then watch as they express their disapproval in varied ways - some fairly standard school-bully-material, others less so.
The story is powerful and well-written, with pretty clear motivation for all of the characters. That is not my problem with it. My problem with this novel is twofold. Firstly, it leads you to believe that it will be a completely different kind of novel, making the shock that much worse when it reaches you.
My second problem is entirely personal, and is the same as the problem I had with 'Lord of the Flies' - I happen to find children acting in this brutal fashion incredibly disturbing. If they were adults, it wouldn't disturb me half as much. I'm sure it's unrealistic of me, but if there are schoolboys like Archie Costello or Emile Janza out there, I don't want to know about it.
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