Benson Fisher is excited. He's earned a scholarship to Maxfield Academy in New Mexico. It's his first really lucky break. He's a foster kid, and he's been through a lot of families. He has no family to speak of, and even fewer friends because he's moved around so much. Now he's hoping to make a few friends and finish school at Maxfield. He figures out that there's something really strange about the Academy right away. It is surrounded by a gate with razor wire on the top. There's no adults there, the kids do everything themselves, including teaching and enforcing the rules. The kids are also pretty strange, for the most part they seem resigned to staying in the Academy. There are also gangs that run the school. Everyone belongs to one of three gangs. There's the Society, preppy kids, Havoc, which seems kind of like a regular gang, and Variant, which everyone else belongs to. Not really sure of which group to join, Benson joins Variant, because the kids seem to be a little more normal. There's also the rule situation, you break one of the main four rules and you...well, die. Benson's not sure what to do, but he knows that he doesn't want to stay where in the school, but is there a way out, beyond death, of course? I really enjoyed this book. I loved the concept of the school and how it seems weird that the kids that are there don't really seem to want to leave. I loved the characters. The end seemed really creepy to me. It wasn't a squeaky clean book, there were a few mild swear words. I can't wait to read book two, I just hope it won't be quite as creepy as the end of this one!