Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it as a kid, who knows. Now, I found it very slow-paced and rather boring, to the point where I almost got into a reading slump. Could be that I've already consumed so much material focused on the worst side of humans to be interested in this book (e.g., movies such as Battle Royale , Das Experiment, Die Welle, ..), even if it was to some extent their predecessor. Won't be picking this up again I think.