Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn



Kayla Reed lives in a future world that is disintegrating. The government requires all adults to have a bar code tattooed on their forearm. That seemingly simple bar code is fracturing families, causing job loss and even death.

Kayla is convinced there is more to the tattoo than just the code...why would just a simple code make her father depressed enough to commit suicide? Or why would the code cause her best friends family to go from one of the wealthiest families to barely being able to survive. Suddenly the bank just cut off their money. And then she finds part of the secret. There is more to the tattoo, the government is making decisions about the futures of families based on...
I can't tell you. It would give too much away... I will tell you a little more about the story - because it doesn't end there.

Kayla joined a group of students against bar codes - these outcasts form a bond as they try to educate others. But then things fall apart. The government requires 17 year olds to get the tattoo..Kayla refuses - but with that refusal she also forfeits all access to money.

So, she is on the run. To a place she has only heard whispers about, a place where others are gathering to defy the government, to learn how to live.

Will she make it?

This is an exciting and unsettling look at a future that is not very rosy. It also makes you think about tattoos in a completely different way.

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