Sunday, July 13, 2014

Review - The Bar Code Tattoo

The Bar Code Tattoo
Suzanne Weyn
2/5 Stars




A dystopian future where everybody is pressured to conform to getting a bar code tattoo – a tattoo that let's you access your money and identifiation all digitally within the tattoo.

Growing up, my mother always told me that the “Mark of the Beast” would be a barcode tattoo. She was overly religious and explained that as soon as that happened, the end times were near. Perhaps because of this upbringing, I found the book VERY preachy. My upbringing also impacted the reading of the book in the sense that it was far from an original story. Christian superstition or mythology being put into dystopian young adult fiction. For this reason, I'm also not a fan of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (much to my husbands dismay).

I did, to some extent, enjoy the ideas behind the story put into novel form. As a kid it was something I thought about a lot – the end times and the story of Revelations in the Bible. As an adult and an atheist – I sort of read it tongue in cheek.

It's a quick read – which may be the only reason I did end up finishing it. I'm not going to complain about that too much, though – as I got the book for free with a pile of other books someone was tossing away.

The book is plot driven rather than character driven and flat at times.


The Bar Code Tattoo could be more appealing to Christian young adults who are in youth group, currently talking about similar ideas. Outside of that, if you want a quick dystopian read – maybe give this one a try. Honestly, though – I would just pass right on and find some decent dystopian fiction – there's so much out there!

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