The Rules Have Changed

What happens when you’ve been on a boat sailing around the world for three years and, when you come back, home isn’t home anymore? Blake Pendleton is about to find out. When he and his parents return home to North America after their sailing trip, everything has changed. High school for Blake now consists of uniforms, addressing teachers as sir, and reading rules out from a “freedom phone” which he has to have on him at all times. No one will explain to him why or how the world came to be like this while he was gone, and, when he doesn’t do exactly what is wanted of him, he gets put into isolation where he is in complete darkness but can hear small whispers saying intelligible things.

After his first day of school and his level one isolation, Blake meets Ming and Gina, two students of colour who don’t agree with the system and want to fight back. They invite Blake to help them with their plan to be inducted into the teacher training program where they hope they can rise through the ranks and gain enough power to change the rules and end the fascism that has taken over their home. However, things may not be so easy when one of their teachers gets involved. Miss Jamieson says she's on their side, but can she be trusted? The stakes for Blake, Ming, and Gina have never been higher, and they'll be risking everything to fight against the new world order.

Lesley Choyce's novel explores what the world might be like if conservative views of immigration and xenophobia were pushed to the extreme. Blake comes back to a world much like that of Orwell's 1984, where he is assaulted with propaganda nonstop at school and is expected to follow the new rules without any kind of complaint or question. Choyce's exploration of propaganda and media control in a modern setting is eerily compelling, and even more scary are the isolation punishments that Blake endures. Beyond Blake’s being alone in a basement in the dark, Choyce adds a layer of subliminal messaging with voices whispering indistinctly to Blake. Later in the book, Ming tells Blake that they're telling him to “trust authority” and “do what's right”. Gina refers to the new form of schooling as “brainwashing prisons”, and she is exactly right. The schools in Choyce's world are made to mold children into mindless obeyers who never question what is put in front of them on their phones.

To make the themes of xenophobia, propaganda and fascism strike readers harder, Choyce makes two of his main characters people of colour. Ming and his family are Chinese while Gina and her family are black. These two people and their families refuse to stand still and accept the new world where they are made to feel lesser because of their skin. The representation in this novel drives home the themes and makes it clear just how terrifying the near future Choyce writes about is.

The Rules Have Changed is a compelling read, one that rings just a little too true to the current political climate in North America. It is a novel that will make readers stop and think about what the future holds and how they can choose to affect it. While the characters in the novel are teenagers, they choose to take action and try to better their world. It is a book that will hopefully empower young readers to face oppression head on and fight for what is right. Choyce has walked a careful line between writing a book that sends a strong message about the inherent immorality in xenophobia and racism while not making it overly didactic or preachy. It is a novel that has some very important messages about our world and the direction it is heading.