Rating: 
Summary: A Boring Book that Barely Qualifies as Science Fiction
Review: Outlaw School is like a boring, badly executed version of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. There is zero depth to the vaguely technical aspects of the story. The entire story is disjointed, and there is an overwhelming lack of a plot.The only truly spectacular thing about this book is that it ends.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoiding the Norms of Society
Review: Putting a challenge on society, to make it known that there is no normal, is a difficult task that author Rebecca Ore is able to complete. This book is full of themes of individualism, discrimination, and determination. The main character, Jayne, goes to extremes to not be forced into the society that is around her. If you are too smart, you are feared. The fear comes from a society that just knows too little. The world around Jayne is almost an illusion to her. She knows there has to be some sort of outlet, even if it is illegal. Why not? - Everything else is! The group that is "targeting" her is one that has set rules and regulations that include celibacy and biological changes. This is comparable to the book Shockwave Rider by Jerome Brunner. In both cases, the main characters are being targeted by a bigger group/society and the intent is to have them join. The characters refuse and you learn their struggle to keep out of the norms of society. Through computers, technology, and finding niches, Jayne attempts to find her outlet. Maybe there is no way out. The feeling that Ore gets across is that there is no way out, and this is demonstrated throughout the hardships and obstacles of Jayne's life. This is truly one of the best books I have read, especially in the cyberpunk genre. You feel as if you are in that time frame - even if it is approximately 60 years from now! This is definitely a must-read for anyone who wants to take a look at what could someday become a reality.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for All People of any Society
Review: Rebecca Ore presents a glimpse of years to come that brings social stratification to a completely new level. She presents a society in which knowledge is given proportionally to your class, where society offers only conformity or insanity, and into which an individual's potential seems limited. Jayne specifically struggles to find herself in this world of many obstacles. She would conform, yet the consequences are so unwelcoming. Considered crazy for being an outcast, Jayne is portrayed from a child to an adult as rebellious in the eyes of others, but she appears sympathetic and rational to the reader.
If you question societies purpose and its norms, you should definitely read this book. If you can't understand why people aren't like you, this book will provide more insight than you may think. It questions the identity of everyone and the purpose of everyone's identity. Rebecca Ore gives enough details to make the reader knowledgeable, and at the same time excludes just enough to make the reader question Jayne's identity, just as she does. Being the best I have read in the cyberpunk genre, Outlaw School should bring no hesitations to a reader in search of a great book.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for All People of any Society
Review: Rebecca Ore presents a glimpse of years to come that brings social stratification to a completely new level. She presents a society in which knowledge is given proportionally to your class, where society offers only conformity or insanity, and into which an individual's potential seems limited. Jayne specifically struggles to find herself in this world of many obstacles. She would conform, yet the consequences are so unwelcoming. Considered crazy for being an outcast, Jayne is portrayed from a child to an adult as rebellious in the eyes of others, but she appears sympathetic and rational to the reader.
If you question societies purpose and its norms, you should definitely read this book. If you can't understand why people aren't like you, this book will provide more insight than you may think. It questions the identity of everyone and the purpose of everyone's identity. Rebecca Ore gives enough details to make the reader knowledgeable, and at the same time excludes just enough to make the reader question Jayne's identity, just as she does. Being the best I have read in the cyberpunk genre, Outlaw School should bring no hesitations to a reader in search of a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of good themes that are only lightly explored
Review: There's something about an author writing dystopian SF that makes it very clear where he or she sees the dystopia coming from, and some of the feminist dystopias (see also The Gate to Women's Country and The Handmaid's Tale) seem to reveal the authors' minds as a bit claustrophic and extreme: does anyone seriously beleive that lurking just below the surface in America is a would-be patriarchial theocracy? Ger real. After gritting my teeth against this insinuation in the first chapters, I was able to enjoy Ore's book more - it's clear that she's not the same sort of small-horizoned author as some others. When she dragged in the Open Software sub-plot, I got more engaged. The problem with her writing, however, is that the threads never tie together too cleanly - a reader is lefting feeling unfufilled, as if the interesting action all takes place off stage. This is remniscent of the feeling I've gotten reading some of (William ?) Barton's SF. I kept wanting to know how the society she envisioned came to be, what *exactly* went on with the Open Source underground, etc. Instead, I got a lot of impressionistic strokes on a large canvas. Very well done, for what it is, but it didn't deliver what I look for in a novel.
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