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This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.
That said, on to the review!
Psychic powers can be helpful, but are they really? Dale O. Fither seems to be able to see the future. With enough advance notice he can do something about it, like saving a girl trapped beneath a bus, or girl that inadvertantly set fire to herself, or a drowning boy. Then he starts to wonder: is he seeing the future, or is he making it? Afraid to know the truth, he agrees to go to the Airman Institute where, hopefully, he'll learn how to control his powers. But there's something about the Institute...why is his mother so afraid of its head, Dr. Airman? And what exactly is going on at the Institute? What is Dr. Airman really doing? Dale is afraid of his powers, but does he want them to be used for potentially evil things?
Parapsychology may or may not be real, depending on who you listen to. Still, it's always enjoyable to wonder about it and imagine what it would be like if we had it. Of course, there's also the downside of being so different, and that's the exploitive possibilities. This novel does a good job of pointing out the negative potential--or negative reasoning behind it--of any formalized study of individuals possessing psychic abilities. That's not to say that everyone studying parapsychology has some sort of malevolent ulterior motive behind it, but that the possibility does exist.
We get to see how Dale's powers are affecting his life and what few relationships he has in it: with his mother, with his father, with his friends and classmates. We also get to see the more "real" side of Dale's life: how being the son of a headmaster can be hell on his school life; how becoming a hero can be more trouble than it's worth; how sometimes you must do things you don't want to do just to survive with you friends, peers, and family...and with yourself.
While technically it is a young adult book, that's what I was when I first read it. Even so, it still provides an excellent example of exploitation and manipulation that is well worth paying attention to, even without the inclusion of psychic phenomena. If you read it, you'll understand what I mean. Really!
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