The fact that this book is regarded as a classic YA novel just baffles me. I understand that Cormier's books are meant to reflect a bleak, dark reality, but here it's driven to the point of absurdity. I think this opinion just comes from where I am in life, as a teen I probably would have gelled more with the book as I had a more pessimistic outlook at the time, but now I feel like the world doesn't need these kinds of books anymore; ones that tell the reader that "the world is a horrible and cruel place with awful people and that's how it is. Try to conform the best you can or suffer." Even though we still live in a world far from peaceful, there have been advancements made due to nonconformity. Not to mention the fact that it treats toxic masculinity as a fact of life, and what exactly are we telling our young boys with that message? That they'll always been seen as violent criminals and, if they don't meet that expectation, they'll be beaten to a pulp? I don't mean to sound like the old woman clutching her pearls and declaring "Who will think of the children?" but the youth deserve better. There's better novels to give them about corruption and faulty systems and the people that remain implicit in them.