Not so Great Book Review - The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn
Watch out for spoilers and remember just because I don't like the book doesn't mean you won't either.
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn
This book is older than most Dystopian novels. Published in 2004.
Meet Kayla, a high school student trying to get into a college, living in a futuristic world. She is a strong character I'll give the author that. When her father commits suicide she deals with it, when her best friend had to move away and get the dreaded bar code tattoo she deals with that as well. In fact, she has very little emotion to her. When her boyfriend, that she meets at a anti bar code tattoo group, gets the bar code tattoo and practical turns them into the government she remains strong. While I can see myself in her, I would never put myself into a book. I am a class A bitch and very unsympathetic. So is Kayla at times.
The bar code tattoo is a tattoo on the inside of your wrist that scans everything. Your identity, your cash, everything and everything is what people are scared of. Besides the superficial things the bar code tattoo also tells your employer of any defects, and sometimes can get you fired or killed or never married.
Kayla does not get her tattoo and when tragedy strikes she goes off on her own. She ends up in the woods with these hippies who can tell the future and Kayla finds out she has this talent. This is where I am lost. The author digs up this reason of human evolution but I read this book and am thinking "this isn't x-men. Muttants do not run with us."
In the end, her traitorous ex comes back with his acid burned arm to get rid of the tattoo. and she takes him back and in the end, they will rule the country or something that has to do with Kayla's vision.
All in all, the book lacks in depth and sentiment and anything to make me feel for the characters. However, it isn't all bad. The writing itself meant I could make it through the book and while the idea of the bar code tattoo is haunting the deliverance of it was lacking.
The book gets a 3 out of ten stars. It's not the worse purchase I have made but one I don't look upon kindly.