Lowry did a wonderful job at both creating a fantastic story while having a rarely thought about theme about how controlled and standardized should everyone life's be. Of course their should be some control, but how much? This story definately shows that too much is a bad thing. With shocking revelations, numerous unexpected events, you can't put this book down. It has mostly realistic events and concepts, and excellent descriptions so it seems like the story could possibly happen in the future, which i hope never does. You must read this book!