The Predicteds ~ Christine Seifert

Your future is not your own.

Title: The Predicteds

Author: Christine Seifert

Pub Date: September 2011

Publisher Sourcebooks Fire

352 pages

Author website: http://christineseifert.com

From GoodReads:

Daphne is the new girl in town and is having trouble fitting in. At least she has Jesse… sort of. He wants to be more than “just friends,” but there’s something he’s not telling her about his past. Something dangerous. When a female student is brutally attacked, police turn to PROFILE, a new program that can predict a student’s capacity for violent behavior, to solve the case. As the witch hunt ensues, Daphne is forced to question her feelings for Jesse—and what she will do if her first love turns out to be a killer.

The Predicteds. I had so much trouble with this book. The first half I found to be absolutely intoxicating. I was hooked, and did not want to stop reading. Then, I became disgusted. Not by the writing or anything, but the sheep mentality of the community in the story. 

PROFILE is a program that tests students to find out if anyone is going to become a negative impact on society. What is negative? Violent, a teen mom, addicted to drugs or alcohol, antisocial, etc. If a student falls into one of those categories, they are "Predicted." But so far, the test results have been sealed and confidential. Until a girl is brutally attacked and left for dead. She lives, but the consequences are great. Now the PROFILE results are being unsealed.

Overnight, friends are now enemies. Classrooms are becoming segregated, as is all of the resources at the school. Local hangouts are not allowing Predicteds. It is just mind boggling. But sadly, this is a mentality that I can see sweep across the nation. On Monday everything is fine with your classmates. Nothing bad has happened. But Tuesday, just because a test says they are antisocial, you are afraid of them. They are bad. They could hurt you. What?! 

One of my thoughts early on: If you are Predicted to be a criminal and that is all you hear and what is expected of you, does that make you a criminal? Or help you to become one? Can a person fight it?

"...Don't you see? The test has made them different. ... We can't undo what's already been done. The predicted will become exactly what we tell them they are going to become."

Moral dilemmas come up in The Predicteds. One HUGE one, but I can't go into it for fear of spoiling a huge plot point. 

If you are a fan of Minority Report, you will want to give this book a read.  

And for one of my giggle out loud moments...

"I look around the room for a phone, but there isn't one. It drives me nuts that I don't have a cell phone. Recently, I saw someone on TV say that the pope has an iPhone. I'm truly behind the times. The pope is probably updating his blog from some remote village right now, and I'm holding a puke bucket."