Candor, written by Pam Bachorz, is a short, witty, creepy novel about a seemingly perfect community in Florida. In this town, everyone does as they are told, respects themselves and others, and strives for their very best. After the startling and heart-breaking death of his oldest son, Campbell Banks created this town. He, with his wife and younger son, bought an area of plantation in Florida and began to rewrite their lives. Finally relieving themselves of their son’s death, Campbell and his wife, Lucy, began to construct other houses for other families. Because of its ritzy houses and friendly, courteous members, the community began to flourish. Business were built, schools were developed, citizens worked harder than ever to do what was best. From the outside, the Community, named Candor by its founders, Campbell and Lucy, appeared to be the best place to live and especially the best place to raise a child. However, deep under the community’s good virtues and efficiency their loomed a dark, dangerous secret.
One day, Lucy left the family. She escaped the town of Candor, only leaving a note behind that said, “Don’t come looking for me.” Devastated by his mom’s leaving, Oscar became prone to noticing things that were out of place. Right before his mother left, Oscar noticed she suddenly became uninterested in art, something that she had loved all her life. Oscar also noticed that he, himself, had also developed a distaste for art, too. And junk food and relaxing and breaking the rules. He also noticed that he had discovered a certain joy in cleaning the house and pleasing his father and making perfect scores on his SATs, no matter how many hours into the night he had to study. As more families began to move to Candor, Oscar noticed the change in other children and their parents, too. Determined to discover the meaning of the radical change, Oscar soon discovers it, hidden in all the music that plays throughout the streets and homes of Candor.
Fast-forward a few years later, Oscar has become a master at avoiding the messages that play in the music of Candor. After rifling through his father’s study, he discovers many documents and equipment that reveal to him that messages are entered into the music that is played all around Candor. These messages say things like, Don’t litter, Respect personal space, Lying is bad, and A nutritious breakfast is a key to success. You do not notice these messages, but instead they enter your brain and activate themselves in your subconscious. Oscar, after discovering the truth about the messages that lie in his favorite music, teaches himself how to block the messages sent out by his father and create new ones to keep himself on track. However, to avoid anyone from noticing, Oscar must continue to act the part of a “perfect child.” If he were to let his armor down and reveal to his father the truth, Oscar would be sent to the Listening Room, literally a room where you are forced to listen to messages, hidden in music, until you are “cured.”
Deciding to take advantage of his knowledge, Oscar begins seeking out children of families new to Candor, hoping to find a new “client.” After successfully combating his father’s brainwashing techniques, Oscar seeks to tell other kids of the terrible actions being played. Calling them his clients, Oscar gives these new kids CDs with personal messages on them. However, these messages were good – they confirm that Candor’s messages force children to be perfect, and that Oscar’s way is right. But Oscar, who I believe is more like his dad than he realizes, doesn’t let these clients get their special music at no cost. Oscar makes them give him something that is outlawed in Candor, such as candy, alcohol, art supplies, photographs, et cetera.
However, Oscar’s secret business is thrown into jeopardy when he builds connections with two risky clients: Sherman, his blabbermouth best friend, and Nia, a new bold girl who he develops a crush on. After many too-close-to-being-caught excursions, lying, and distrust, Oscar must make decisions on what is right and what is best. Coming to a quick, yet unpredictable end, Candor is a great book with a bad and surprising ending, but as one of my favorite, and most certainly quirky authors, Pseudonymous Bosch, would say:
“Only bad books have good endings. If a book is any good, its ending is always bad because you don’t want the book to end.”
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