Homeroom Headhunters by Clay McLeod Chapman (review)

Having set his last school on fire in a lab accident, Spencer vows to keep his head down when he starts at Greenfield Middle School. This proves harder than it seems, though, because Greenfield Middle holds a secret: in the drop ceiling tiles and the boiler room lives a group of former misfit students who have all disappeared within the past three years—and they're thinking Spencer might be a great addition to their tribe. Led by the eldest and best-read of the bunch, a teen known as Peashooter, the Tribe has developed an elaborate system of survival, seeking over-the-top revenge for the ways they were bullied. Spencer is initially attracted to the band's dog-eat-dog approach to life—and especially to a girl named Sully—but begins to question their bloodthirsty tactics and their blind devotion to Peashooter's words. He soon finds, though, that once you're in this clan, you're in it for good. Literary allusions abound through this school-survival tale, both implicitly (Lord of the Flies is a clear inspiration) and explicitly (Peashooter's strict code is based in part on "The Most Dangerous Game" and The Call of the Wild); however, they're inclined to be didactic and aimed over the heads of the audience rather than helpful. The ending is unsatisfying—Spencer takes the fall for a chaos-inducing scheme that Peashooter and his gang cook up— and leaves too much unreconciled. That said, there's certainly no end to the action here, and Spencer's sleuthing into the histories of the Tribe adds enough depth to keep the book from falling into merely a series of ever-escalating, slightly gory quests for revenge. Details of the Tribe's outlandish way of life (frozen corndog nunchuks and ballpoint pen blowguns are weapons of choice) and Spencer's smart sarcasm keep a thread of dark humor running throughout, and there's even a touch of romance. Lying somewhere between the grim humor of Legrand's The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls (BCCB 11/12) and the frenetic school stories of Gordon Korman, this novel may appeal to kids wanting something less ethereal than the former and darker than the latter.