The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1)

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1)

3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 · rating details · 7,534 ratings · 1,494 reviews

Young Octavian is being raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers — but it is only after he opens a forbidden door that learns the hideous nature of their experiments, and his own chilling role them. Set in Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson’s mesmerizing novel takes place at a time when Patriots battled to win liberty while African slaves were ent...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published September 4th 2012 by Candlewick Press (first published September 12th 2006)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Books about American slavery

26th out of 98 books — 134 voters

Soldier's Secret by Sheila Solomon Klass

Journal Of William Thomas Emerson, A Revolutionary War Patriot by Barry Denenberg

Mrs. Stuart's American Revolution Booklist for 8th Grade

4th out of 19 books — 7 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 18, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been revised and can now be found at Exendable Mudge Muses Aloud. What an excellent book.

15 likes · like · see review

Apr 04, 2008 Linda rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

Friends, it would be difficult to overstate my vexation upon the finishing of this allegedly excellent tome. In an effort to emulate Mr. Sharp, I shall essay to enumerate the difficulties that beset me during those long days in which I did traverse the pages of the manuscript. A) My head ached in a most alarming fashion. B) A strange desire to hurl myself off a bridge, or some such other edifice of sufficient moment, possessed me.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this title, unless the pote...more

88 likes · like · see review

Dec 25, 2008 Osho rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

Good enough that I may replace my paperback with a hardbound copy. Classified as young adult fiction (perhaps only because of its young adult protagonist) this first volume of Octavian Nothing reads a bit like Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, only interesting, coherent, and with a discernible plot and character empathy. In addition to the action, set in the early U.S. Revolutionary War period, the major thematic material concerns Octavian's identity. He is simultaneously royalty and slave, collaborat...more Good enough that I may replace my paperback with a hardbound copy. Classified as young adult fiction (perhaps only because of its young adult protagonist) this first volume of Octavian Nothing reads a bit like Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, only interesting, coherent, and with a discernible plot and character empathy. In addition to the action, set in the early U.S. Revolutionary War period, the major thematic material concerns Octavian's identity. He is simultaneously royalty and slave, collaborator and experimental subject, learned and naive. Volume two may (as the subtitle of this volume suggests) explore Patriot vs. Loyalist. Octavian Nothing raises many questions about whether ends justify means, about struggles for liberty (liberty for whom?), and the virtues and limits of empirical knowledge.

Some reviewers have complained that the language is too mannered and stylistic, but I found it atmospheric rather than detracting. It adds to the historical flavor, and also serves to demonstrate Octavian's rarified upbringing and separation from the general community. The text is suffused with a dry wit and symbolic events that satirize aspects of the plot and characters' struggles and aspirations. Some of these are recognized by some characters; others are not. The mannered tone, arch at times, provides linguistiic containment for otherwise horrific content. Anderson manages this balance quite elegantly. This meticulousness of form and language extends to the book's typesetting in Casalon, a font popular in the American colonial period.

Of note is a self-referential joke on page 203 in the paperback edition. Dr. Trefusis muses, "When I peer into the reaches of the most distant futurity, I fear that even in some unseen epoch when there are colonies even upon the moon itself, there shall still be gatherings like this, where the young, blinded by privilege, shall dance and giggle and compare their poxy lesions." This, of course, is the initial action in Anderson's previous novel Feed.(less)

16 likes · like · see review

Nov 23, 2007 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Octavian Nothing is a slave boy owned by a group of rationalist philosophers living in Revolutionary War-era Boston. Slowly, we learn that Octavian's upbringing, characterized by a rigorous classical education and musical training (in which he excels) regular measurment of such bodily functions as his bowel movemements, are all part of a disturbing experiment to determine whether or not people of African descent are inferior to whites. Octavian comes to realize this as well, and in the course of...more

14 likes · like · see review

Aug 19, 2010 Seth Hahne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm rather surprised that The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing should be marketed to a young adult audience. Surprised and a little bit saddened. Saddened because I think the book deserves better and surprised for similar reasons.

Octavian Nothing deserves an audience built of those who are thoughtful, empathetic human beings. And this is not the typical and immediate description by which one would first describe teenagers. Certainly there are exceptions, but those are young adults whom we wo...more I'm rather surprised that The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing should be marketed to a young adult audience. Surprised and a little bit saddened. Saddened because I think the book deserves better and surprised for similar reasons.

Octavian Nothing deserves an audience built of those who are thoughtful, empathetic human beings. And this is not the typical and immediate description by which one would first describe teenagers. Certainly there are exceptions, but those are young adults whom we would consider to be: exceptional. Definitionally speaking at the least. No, these two books deserve an audience of careful readers. Of those who are not looking for titillation or something pop or hip. These are books for those who enjoy to ferret out truth in its varied forms. For those who would value a considered approach to the historically one-sided consideration of the American Revolution and what that meant to those living in America when its outcome was still uncertain. For those concerned with the nature and history of man.

These are books for readers, for those who take joy in the promise of the written page. For that reason, to market these two wonderful books to a particular age-caged demographic is a minor tragedy. Tragic for the adult who will never chance to read it for fear of wasting time on some children's trifle and tragic for the young readers who will pick it up expecting the juvenile pleasures of Harry Potter or Twilight and then put it down again in disgust, only to retain the lifelong memory that Octavian Nothing was terribly dull simply because they did not yet apprehend the means by which one could ever actually appreciate Anderson's work here.

Whether Octavian Nothing is for you is a good question. I can't pretend to know you or your tastes. But I can talk about the person I think would appreciate Octavian's journey and the telling of it.

This person is concerned with the state of the human creature and has at least a rudimentary care for the lives and stories of people in circumstance wholly different from anything the reader has personally experienced. This person enjoys verisimilitude in narrative voice and sees the merit in an 18th century scholar writing as would an 18th century scholar and a similarly situated soldier speaking as would such a soldier. This person enjoys rediscovering well-worn events from the fresh perspective of a vantage rarely before considered. This person enjoys unveiling grand historical ironies and is all the same troubled by the hypocrisies that such ironies must make known. This person likes to be challenged by their reading material.

This is, I imagine, the person who would enjoy both volumes of the telling of Octavian Nothing's young life story. This is, in fact, the kind of person that both my wife and I are, for we enjoyed Anderson's two volumes immensely.

Octavian is a young black man, a slave, recounting his youth and the years leading up to the American Revolution. He is, however, no slave of average experience. He is the subject of scientific experimentation and lives a life of relative, though strange, privilege. Still even as the Colonies are being haunted by questions of liberty and property, so too is Octavian likewise haunted—though his concern is understandably much more visceral—and approaches the well-worn concepts with a mournful grace that none of my American forefathers spent too great a time considering.

Anderson's writing here is impressive. He captures the voice of the era without flaw so far as I can tell; his style is impeccable. He uses journal entries, letters, and advertisements to convey his tale and this brings a sense of immediacy to his actors' character and frame. We come to know especially Octavian and his unique perspective on the world. And as Anderson writes in the spirit of the times, his vocabulary is requisitely robust (I'm not certain I've ever been so often at a loss as to a term's meaning as I was during the course of devouring these two volumes).

I can see the style becoming cumbersome for some readers, but I found it charming. There were moments in the second novel that my interest was less than stoked—as description of military engagement does little to rivet my attentions—but in all, I'd say this was a superb work. One that asks questions of philosophy and faith that merit consideration.(less)

13 likes · like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: slaves, tbr-busting-2013, winter-20122013, series, young-adult, published-2006, gothic, fraudio, music, plague-disease, historical-masturbation

The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1)
by M.T. Anderson

series
tbr busting 2013
pub 2006
young adult
gothic
fraudio
slaves
hist fic
winter 2012/2013
eugenics

This is really good, however I have had to make notes of the numerical codes for the characters.

A chilling slant on slavery and the American Civil war couched in modern spin.

4* Feed
4* The Pox Party

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 10, 2007 Elisabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: kids over 12 or so, adults

This is an amazing book--an exploration of some of the contradictory philosophies behind the American Revolution and a compelling coming-of-age tale at the same time. Dark and difficult, but well worth the attention.

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 16, 2012 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy-philosophers-in-fiction

There are some excellent books about slavery in the US that "tell all the truth but tell it slant." That is, they depict the institution in some other way than through its archetypal manifestation in the public imaginary: a large white-owned Southern plantation in the several decades prior to the Civil War. This is one of them. (Another is The Known World.) Here we have a young African prince (or so his mother tells him) being raised by the wonderfully-named Novanglian College of Lucidity, a gro...more There are some excellent books about slavery in the US that "tell all the truth but tell it slant." That is, they depict the institution in some other way than through its archetypal manifestation in the public imaginary: a large white-owned Southern plantation in the several decades prior to the Civil War. This is one of them. (Another is The Known World.) Here we have a young African prince (or so his mother tells him) being raised by the wonderfully-named Novanglian College of Lucidity, a group of homegrown Boston philosophes, immediately prior to and during the Revolutionary War. Octavian is taught Latin, Greek, music, mathematics, and so on, and is rigorously monitored in all ways (everything he eats and excretes is weighed). He comes to learn that he is part of an experiment designed to test the intellectual capabilities of the "Africk nation," and that he is the chattel property of the head of the College, Mr. Gitney (or Mr. 03-01 as he prefers, using their 'rational' system of designations).

The book meanders and takes its time (my one criticism of it) and there is not, at least until the end, much of a story beyond the life of young Octavian. (The book is the first of a trilogy, so it may be that the grand narrative is just coming together by the end of this, the first installment.) But for all that, it is often shocking, and often moving. Major events include the observation of the transit of Venus, an event of great importance since it allowed, through the gathered observations of people all over the world, a good means of calculating the distance between the Earth and the Sun; a pox party, in which a number of people quarantine themselves and are inoculated against smallpox; and the opening salvoes of the Revolution itself.

As I say, the book is about slavery. Particularly, it is about the horrifying paradox that a country born in the struggle for liberty was a country built on slavery. Patriots send their slaves to take their places in the ranks of the militias. The supporters of the Novanglian College of Lucidity, and the patriots in general, are terrified by the prospect that the British will incite their own slaves to turn against them. So the struggle against the British is necessarily a struggle to which the patriots' slaves are both necessary as a resource and a feared fifth column, to be kept in subjection. The final section of the book, masterfully entitled "The Great Chain of Being," serves as a stunning climax to the treatment of this paradox. Mr. Sharp, a sharp, two-faced 'utilitarian' in the model of Mr. Gradgrind, who by then is running the College, explains to a now openly rebellious Octavian that liberty means the liberty to own property and engage in commerce. We see the portrait of an America (contemporary as well as historical) in which the cry of liberty is just the good face put on by a calculating defense of property, money, and the hegemony of the white man. The 'experiment' of which Octavian has unwittingly been a part was, not perhaps at its inception, but during the course of events, in fact designed to fail, to prove the necessity of slavery. The foolish and naive, yet also in his mild way vicious, scientist/philosopher has become a tool of the grasping capitalist, allowing his 'experiment' to be bought.

The book is mostly the recollections of Octavian himself, written in what seemed to me a very well-done faux eighteenth-century English, but these are interspersed with odd letters from others, newspaper clippings, and so on. In the third section, Octavian, who as a character has become largely mute at that point of his life in protest, has no role in the narration at all, and the bulk of it is carried on through the letters of a likable simpleton in the militia who delights in the name of Evidence Goring. Critics seem to be exercised by the way the narration is structured, but I think, on balance, that hearing voices other than Octavian's provides an important and necessary sense of perspective, as if, as in the case of the transit of Venus, we are triangulating, or telling it slant. (less)

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 07, 2008 Nick Fagerlund rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In broad genre terms, it's a slave story, but it's a consummately weird one that flickers in and out of other genres and spheres of influence, the most notable encroachments being on the Gothic novel\* and the heroic literature of the American Revolution. The idea I keep turning around in my head is that it's in a complicated and fairly aggressive dialogue with some long-term trends in YA--correct me if you remember differently, but didn't most of the Revolutionary War novels largely ignore the...more In broad genre terms, it's a slave story, but it's a consummately weird one that flickers in and out of other genres and spheres of influence, the most notable encroachments being on the Gothic novel\* and the heroic literature of the American Revolution. The idea I keep turning around in my head is that it's in a complicated and fairly aggressive dialogue with some long-term trends in YA--correct me if you remember differently, but didn't most of the Revolutionary War novels largely ignore the question of slavery, and didn't most of the slave novels stay fairly isolated within the plantation atmosphere, and weren't the Gothic-influenced novels pretty much separated from historical context altogether? Anderson's seems to be aiming to pollute every part of historical YA fiction with... everything else. (And I want to briefly mention another thing he's doing, at least with the first part of the story: I think Octavian's early life is set up in such a way as to isolate and distill the horror of slavery itself. By having the protagonist raised in comfort and relative ease, and withholding until later the gross physical degradations of slavery as practiced in the Americas--that is, by removing the other types of horror that might confuse the issue--Anderson leaves only the _existential_ horror of slavery: the horror of being _owned,_ of being something other than a person. And, okay, that's right there in the title, and every other evil of slavery comes crashing back in in the second half the book, but still, I think the method is worth acknowledging.)

Anyway, right, the story itself. I liked it. Octavian is an interesting character and a weird-ass narrator: an unreliable one who desires, above nearly all else, to be reliable (and is caught, furthermore, between incompatible definitions of reliability). The pathos is intense, the plotting is actually pretty brilliant, and I really do find myself wondering what Octavian will ultimately do and what his reasons will be. I think Anderson's doing a good job at asking questions that aren't, in any conventional way, answerable. And at wrecking poor Octavian's life.

__

\* Yes, the slave novel is intrinsically quite gothic in the first place, but Octavian is raised in 1. a wealthy and well-appointed house, which is 2. largely isolated from the outside world, with 3. murky relationships of power and sex between all its adults, in which there is 4. a secret room where he is forbidden to go. So... Gothic, instead of just gothic. You know what I'm saying.
(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 07, 2009 Aerin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: printz, young-adult, social-commentary, national-book-award, boston-globe-horn-award

Winner of the 2006 National Book Award for Young People's Literature
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (2007)
2007 Printz Honor

I read this book in early February of this year, but have been too timid to review it. Now, with my review of The Obama Revolution by Alan Schaffer-Kennedy being posted tomorrow, I thought it was a good time to throw my two cents into the dialogue of race and literature.

The first volume of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is the story of a young boy in 1760s Boston. He...more

9 likes · like · see review

Jul 30, 2008 Katherine Lewis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: older teens with a patience for more challenging texts/ adults wiling to dabble in YA fiction

Recommended to Katherine by: Printz winner

Shelves: teen-fiction, black-protagonists, male-protagonists, historical, relationship-with-science

Okay, for those of you have read M.T. Anderson's OTHER fabulous book Feed, Octavian Nothing proves to be very interesting on a thematic comparison level. Feed is, of course, set in the distant future and depicts a very Brave New World-ish, anti-utopian warning about where we're going as a culture (and it ain't pretty, folks). Octavian Nothing, on the other hand, is set in New England during America's Revolutionary War. Both books are written in the style and vocabulary of the thoughts of its pro...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2008 Wealhtheow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

9 likes · like · see review

Jan 14, 2008 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: adults and young adults

Recommended to Kate by: my mother

Shelves: youngadult, own-currently, favorites

Oh my god. I started this at my sister's house one night, then had to finish the pointless "Stolen Boy", so I just got back to it yesterday. I could not put the thing down. Each of the four sections was so intense and exciting and terrifying. And FINALLY: an author who messes with form in a minimalist way that has real purpose and expression. Take that, Dave Eggers! Take that, Jonathan Safron Foer or whoever! This book broke my heart every page. It deserves every award it has won and then some.

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 19, 2009 Alex Watkins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: non crazy-racists, crazy racists so that they learn

Shelves: young-adult, historical-fiction, 2009

I was totally surprised by this book, having seen it about a million times at the library, and seeing it never get picked up no matter how much I put it on display, I didn't have that much interest in it. But it has a power that I completely didn't expect. It riled many emotion for me especially anger, and the book left me very angry at people in the past for being so fricken racist. Yay for the present. The book is written from the point of view mostly of an extremely erudite slave, and so the...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 24, 2010 Daisy added it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is definitely a hard book, kind of hard to see the meaning into it. However, its also mysterious in a curious and questioning way.
Looking at the cover, I see that the title: Traitor to the Nation probably refers to Octavian. I had just found out in my reading that he was an experiment in Boston, the conduction of human behavior. [to be continued:]

After reading deeper into the book, I realized that the time period occurring in the bonk happened before the Revolutionary War, back with the 13...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 11, 2009 Dawn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: teen-historical-fiction

I finally finished this on audiobook. I was wondering if I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it, but I don't think I would have. I think that it didn't help that this was an audiobook, and one of my complaints about the book is that it goes on and on incessantly about crap that doesn't really do anything for the plot or the enhancement of the characters. And the over-the-top period language drove me crazy by the end. I would have liked it better if all of the third person narration part...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 11, 2009 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, young-adult, 2009-reads, favourites, war

At first I didn't know what to think of this book. I was horrified but strangely compelled to continue reading this tale of a slave boy raised in an experimental fashion. By the end, my heart was completely captured and the following passage struck me in particular.

“They told me of substance and form; they told me of matter, of its consistency as a fluxion of minute, swarming atomies, as Democritus had writ; they told me of shape and essence; they told me of the motion of light, that it was the...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 24, 2009 Allison (The Allure of Books) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, historical-fiction-ya

This was an amazing book in so many ways, I'm so glad I picked it up. I understand that it is classified as YA...but believe me, it would more than hold it's own in the adult section as well. There are 4 sections, most of the first, second and fourth are the "manuscripts of the boy Octavian", and the language is rich and very much of the eighteenth century. Have a dictionary handy--I sure needed one quite often.

I was touched and outraged throughout all of Octavian's actual memoirs, but I thought...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 24, 2008 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anderson, M.T. 2006. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party.

Let's see...what can I say about Octavian Nothing. It's an award-winning book--winner of the National Book Award, winner of a Printz Honor. It's historical fiction--set in the Colonies right before the American Revolution. It's more literary than your typical teen book--it's heavy in semicolons and rich in detail.

So what is so astonishing about the life of Octavian Nothing? Many things....more Anderson, M.T. 2006. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party.

Let's see...what can I say about Octavian Nothing. It's an award-winning book--winner of the National Book Award, winner of a Printz Honor. It's historical fiction--set in the Colonies right before the American Revolution. It's more literary than your typical teen book--it's heavy in semicolons and rich in detail.

So what is so astonishing about the life of Octavian Nothing? Many things. Many many things. For starters, he's a slave who doesn't quite realize he's a slave. He has little inkling just what he is...or who he is. Who is he? He's a human experiment. He's being studied to determine if Africans are inferior (or equal to) to Europeans. Everything about him is being observed and measured. He's been given the finest clothes, housed in a luxurious way (at least comparatively speaking), taught to play musical instruments, taught in a classical way--learned in many diverse subjects including English, French, Greek, and Latin. He is a child who had a very strange, very odd, very out-there upbringing. Who is raising him the members of the College of Lucidity. Strange men who are fascinated by science, math, philosophy, art, music, etc.

There are several events that change everything for Octavian. That turn his whole world, his whole life, his very being upside down and inside out. Through the course of the book, Octavian goes from a privileged boy who is clueless about the oppression of slavery to a full-grown man who has experienced the oppressive wrath and cruelty of his masters. A man who now longs for freedom.

Even that isn't quite a fair assessment of what this book is about...of what it has to offer readers.

I can't promise you that you'll love it...or even like it. You may, of course, respond that way. But this is a book that requires you to be engaged, to connect emotionally and intellectually with the text. It's a book that requires you to wear your thinking cap.

It's a book that I'd love to use for my Reading With Becky google group. I haven't gotten any response from that group yet whether they'd be interested. But I *do* hope that I can sway some to read it. If you're interested in reading this as a group, come and join the group (there's a box in the sidebar; or email me at my google address also in the sidebar)...let's make this happen :)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews(less)

1 like · like · see review

Nov 30, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, ya

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

1 like · like · see review

Sep 25, 2008 Jess rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, young-adult, historical-fiction, reread, printz-honor, national-book-award, american-revolution

I could write two very different reviews of Octavian Nothing. There's the one where I gush and gush and practically drool over it - the raw emotion! the unexpected humor! Private Ev's letters! Then there's the one where I sing its technical praises - how finely it creates the atmosphere of another time, and the use of language, and how it is a fine, fine example of the powers of historical fiction, and how Mr. Anderson does not underestimate the abilities of the young adult, but rather shows the...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 07, 2008 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: work, 2008, us-slavery

This was a completely extraordinary book - thanks for sending it, Lacy! I'm struck again by the question of what exactly makes a YA adult book a YA book. Nothing in here, whether it's writing, topic, or style, seems "YA" to me - is it simply judged so because of the age of the central protagonist? Is it a marketing choice?

The book's structure captivate me from the very start, as the title page and chapter headings so beautiful recreate the style and form of eighteenth-century American pamphlets....more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2008 Carissa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: teen, listened-to-audiobook

sweet jesus, i have never been so anxious for a book to be done as i was with this one. i listened to the audiobook and it just seemed interminable! ugh! the language is very…. gothic and high and oh, i just hated it! here’s the thing i’ve decided about m.t. anderson. he has really great premises to his books (like in “feed” where it’s in the future and everyone’s brains are jacked into the internet, or “game of sunken places” where two boys have to play a “game” to save the world, or this one w...more sweet jesus, i have never been so anxious for a book to be done as i was with this one. i listened to the audiobook and it just seemed interminable! ugh! the language is very…. gothic and high and oh, i just hated it! here’s the thing i’ve decided about m.t. anderson. he has really great premises to his books (like in “feed” where it’s in the future and everyone’s brains are jacked into the internet, or “game of sunken places” where two boys have to play a “game” to save the world, or this one where it takes place during the american revolution era and a group of white men have decided to do an experiment and give a black slave boy a classic upbringing to test the “negro’s native capacity”–very interesting and thought provoking premise, no?) but then he takes it in this direction that i just don’t care about and don’t want to read! in octavian nothing, for example, the first part talks about all of the ridiculous things they make this boy do in order to “study” him (he poops on a plate and they weigh and record it every time), but i thought that the climax of the book would come when he suddenly discovers who they are and what they’re doing to him (kind of like the truman show), but no, that sort of happens about a quarter of the way through the book and it’s like it’s no big deal, really. then, his owners (or whatever they are) decide to hold a “pox party” — ostensibly to innoculate a group of their friends and then all hang out together while they recover if they contract the illness in any form. and that’s kind of interesting, but also really gross because at least some of the people don’t survive the innoculation. then, octavian runs away and joins the army and the telling of his story is taken over by a soldier (named “evidence goring”) writing letters to his sister (”fruition”) and he tells stories from the battlefield and occasionally mentions octavian (who goes by the nickname, “prince”). i soooooo don’t care about reading battlefield stories. having them read to me in archaic language is excruciatingly painful. then, he is recaptured and they slap this metal hood– complete with a metal bit that goes in him mouth–onto him and lock it. at one point, they describe him gagging on the bit and then puking inside the hood and then the puke plugging up all the holes for him to breathe through and dripping out of the eyeholes and it’s just so groooossssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! uck! maybe i would have been able to better enjoy the book if i were reading it myself and could have skimmed the parts i didn’t like.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 25, 2007 Deb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of historical fiction and philosopher societies

Shelves: young-adult, pseudo-history

In the name of science, men do ridiculous and emotionally-removed things in order to pursue a point. In the name of politics, men do horrible things and overlook their hypocrisy.

This was the first fictional slave narrative that I've really enjoyed in quite some time. Most historical fictions pre-dating the Emancipation Proclomation tend to go over the same old ground and are really just an excuse for a publisher to update their catalog with a new product. This book: totally and completely differ...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 02, 2007 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone!

Shelves: teenbooks, favorite-writers

This book should have won the Printz award. The writing is exceptional and the story is utterly compelling.

Octavian is an African prince, who lives in Colonial Boston at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Dressed in silks, educated and pampered by strange scientists who care for him and his mother, Octavian seems to lack for nothing. Until he discovers that there is one thing denied him—his freedom.

This amazing and unique story begins as an allegorical fable of the Enlightenment and conclud...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 25, 2008 Laura Leonard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, teen, printz-award-winner-honor, audio-book

I tried to read this book when it first came out and quit after about 50 pages. I decided to try listening to it instead and I am so happy that I did.

This is a remarkable and unique tale of Octavian, a slave in Boston as the Revolutionary War breaks out. He and his mother live with the scholars who make up the Novanglian College of Lucidity. Octavian is part of an experiment to determine if Africans and Europeans have the same capacity for learning. As the novel progresses I became more and more...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 22, 2007 Alia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: smarty pants teens and grown up historical fiction buffs

Shelves: ya, grown-up-books

I really enjoyed Octavian Nothing. However, it was not an easy book to read. It's the narrative of a slave named Ocatvian who, at first, does not know he is a slave because he has been raised as part of an experiment of the Novanglian College of Lucidity. When new backers arrive at the college, Octavian's life takes a much more sinister turn. The language is difficult and antiquated. It takes time for the reader to acclimate to it. The plot is complex and the characters unfold slowly. For all of...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 16, 2007 Jenn Myers rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was probably the most intense "young adult" book I've read in years. Octavian is a young black boy, raised during the years preceding the American revolutionary war by a group of scientists who are studying whether or not "savages" can be civilised and trained to behave like white men. This book doesn't hold any punches simply because it's a young adult's book. It deals with slavery and the terrible things that mankind can inflict upon others with a brutal honesty that is made even mor...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 14, 2009 Maureen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm a bit mixed about my rating for this book. Part of me wants to give it a four and part of me wants to just leave it as a three. The side arguing for a higher rating tells me that there are so many aspects of racism mentioned here that those living in the post-civil rights era are prone to forget, many of which still exist in some degree. As a note regarding society, both in pre-Revolutionary times and current day society, this novel definitely is a worthy read.

The story-telling basis of thi...more

like · see review

Feb 27, 2009 Djrmel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, historical-fiction, young-adult, fiction, gleichgesinnte

read by Peter Francis James - As young adult fiction, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party, as the full title goes, is pretty astonishing in its own right. Told first from the pov of a pre-Revolutionary War period slave living in Boston, then in epistolary form from the pov of a fellow soldier in the rebel militia group he attaches himself to, and then again from Octvian's pov, this is a side of that time period rarely presented in fiction, le...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Young Adult Readers	3	10	Jun 13, 2013 09:43pm
animals?	1	8	Feb 08, 2013 06:29pm

combine
Other Editions (17)

More editions...

Genres

Young Adult

319 users

Historical Fiction

118 users

Young Adult > Teen

95 users

Fantasy

37 users

War

25 users

Cultural > African American

21 users

Adult

19 users

Book Club

18 users

Cultural

17 users

Adventure

15 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About M.T. Anderson

Matthew Tobin Anderson (M. T. Anderson), (1968- ) is an author, primarily of picture books for children and novels for young adults. Anderson lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

His picture books include Handel Who Knew What He Liked; Strange Mr. Satie; The Serpent Came to Gloucester; and Me, All Alone, at the End of the World. He has written such young adult books as Thirsty, Burger Wuss, Feed, The...more

More about M.T. Anderson...

Books by M.T. Anderson

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol II: The Kingdom on the Waves

Whales on Stilts: M.T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales (Pals in Peril #1)

The Game of Sunken Places (Norumbegan Quartet, #1)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Pox Party

2 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Pox Party

“...they told me of color, that it was an illusion of the eye, an event in the perceiver's mind, not in the object; they told me that color had no reality; indeed, they told me that color did not inhere in a physical body any more than pain was in a needle.

And then they imprisoned me in darkness; and though there was no color there, I still was black, and they still were white; and for that, they bound and gagged me.” — 21 people liked it

“I do not know what I regret. I sit with my pen, and cannot find an end to that sentence.” — 21 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Pox Party
avg rating	preview: The Pox Party Goodreads rating: 3.51 (7534 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1845844.The_Pox_Party?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320453021l/1845844.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1845844.The_Pox_Party?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson[/url]

The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website