The Chrysalids in Reading the Classics

Aug 16, 2024 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A planet which looks familiar but can't be that... no cities, roads, planes, tall buildings, ships but strange animals, abnormal trees, in a primitive, lost little remnant civilization and still odder people, with weird customs sprouting biblical words , no deviations from the word allowed. Mutations eliminated at birth or in a few days, six toes will not do. Hence any abominations can't be tolerated or the children of the Lord will perish and the pure must be preserved from devilish contaminati A planet which looks familiar but can't be that... no cities, roads, planes, tall buildings, ships but strange animals, abnormal trees, in a primitive, lost little remnant civilization and still odder people, with weird customs sprouting biblical words , no deviations from the word allowed. Mutations eliminated at birth or in a few days, six toes will not do. Hence any abominations can't be tolerated or the children of the Lord will perish and the pure must be preserved from devilish contaminations, only in God's image nothing else, otherwise Tribulations follow. David Strorm dreams of a metropolis from long ago, with ships in the harbor, soaring structures reaching dizzy heights, flying crafts above them, and unexplainable speeding horseless carts, with frightening creatures inside, traveling on level paths. The boy's elder sister Mary told, sadly shakes her head the deluded little brother a shame, a childish imagination can bring many difficulties...
David just ten, the suffering begins in earnest. The Old People have gone never to return, why the mystery is unsolvable. However the modern reader knows this is post- nuclear war Earth, centuries after the bombs fell the reason, the interest at the moment will humans rebuild or die. An unique science- fiction story that preaches salvation, but tough problems have no easy answers. Back to the plot, Rosalind the kid's cousin and best friend enjoys the same malady (not proper description I grant you) aberration... better still the gift of telepathy , nevertheless this would kill anyone on the frontier farming settlement in Labrador , the weak are easily disposed. The secret kept or the end arrives too soon for the deviant. Eight others have this affliction in the struggling district ruled by David's strict father Joseph. Unbelievers not tolerated even relatives punished, a loose confederation governs from a remote hamlet far away from Waknuk. If only the boy could grow quickly but this is rather a dubious wish, to escape with friends into the Badlands full of the reputed vicious Fringes, horrible barbaric mutants and relentless enemies...There has to be some higher authority somewhere in this unhappy world if the species can prosper and get some normalcy... but that is a tiny hope. A miniscule white candle with a flame even more diminutive, as the weak brightness illuminating an adverse gargantuan globe . The dark novel full of unusual ideas and the harsh actions taken, a necessity to live in a lawless land but this philosophy I don't always agree with. ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 B.B. Shepherd added it

I came across this book listed in Best Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction here at Goodreads while looking for books to add to my 2013 Distopia Challenge and recognized the title. I read this as a teenager and absolutely loved it, but I will read it again with more mature eyes before I rate it.
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