Bar Code Rebellion

I read the first book in this series a while back. They were both good, the first better then the second. Quick read.

Kayla has resisted getting the bar code tattoo, even though it's meant forfeiting any chance she'd had at having a normal life. Without the tattoo, she's an exile. But when someone very important sets about to bring her back in again -- WITH a tattoo -- Kayla finds herself a part of the resistence, where her unexpected allies and even more unexpected enemies include three clones of hers.

An edge-of-your-seat, teen's-eye-view thriller that merges the headlines of today with the world of tomorrow.

This was the closing book to the Bar Code Tattoo duology by Suzanne Weyn. It was a great book, the action was non-stop and so much story was put into this little book.

Kayla is set to make the journey to Washington DC in order to join the protest against mandatory bar code tattooing. Things get confusing though when she starts showing up on TV as an advocate for the bar code. Who is this girl on TV? As Kayla's journey continues she begins to find out things that completely change the way she looks at herself and her history. Along the way new information comes to light that the bar code may have an even darker purpose than keeping track of everyone's genetic code.

This was a great story. Some wonderful new characters enter into the story. show more The characters are fairly well-developed but the strong point of the story is definitely the idea surrounding a bar code society. The writing style is okay. The book is a quick read and very engaging.

This book was a bit less believable than the first book. With characters wielding a number of strange abilities, like telepathy and telekinesis, things are much further displaced from a "near" future. Also the whole story about Kayla's history is interesting but kind of strange.

I enjoyed the story; it was a good conclusion to the series and a quick read. Things are nicely wrapped up. If you read the first one you have to read this one. I am actually kind of surprised these two short books weren't published as one novel. The ideas in this novel are what really make it great. Will I read more of Weyn's stuff in the future? Probably not. I will keep an eye on her writing though to see if she comes up with anymore really creative sci-fi premises for a novel. show less

In this sequel, the resistance against getting tattooed is getting stronger and the government is getting more aggressive in silencing those who are against it. As the story progresses, Kayla will lose some people who are close to her, but she will also come in contact with new and old friends who will help her. Kayla discovers astonishing details about herself, her past and the people who raised her. She will also uncover more secrets about the tattoo and the ongoing experiments being carried out by Global-1. I have to say this sequel had some unexpected surprises which made it all the more interesting to read. The idea of a future controlled by a bar code tattoo is thought-provoking and realistic on some level. Who is to say that this show more won’t happen in the future? It’s a short book, so it felt like some scenes didn’t go as deep as I wanted it to. The intensity of the story decreased halfway through the book, but it quickly picked up near the end. show less

I only read this sequel because I had already bought it (and it was short). Like the first book, Rebellion is full of ridiculous pseudoscience and mysticism that doesn't add anything, isn't necessary, and turns what could have been a thought-provoking look at identity, society, genetics, and modern technology into a pretty silly story. Disappointing but expected after the first book.

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

THE BAR CODE REBELLION, by Suzanne Weyn, is the second book about seventeen-year-old Kayla Marie Reed and the world she lives in. In 2025, when the novel takes place, everyone, at the age of seventeen, is required to be tattooed with a bar code. The bar code is what people use for everything, from paying for bus fare to getting a job. In the first book about this world, THE BAR CODE TATTOO, Kayla's neighbor, the now-famous Gene Drake, was killed in a struggle because he had discovered something terrible about the tattoo, and wanted to tell the world.

More terrible, it seems, than what Kayla and other bar code resistors already know: that the tattoo contains each person's genetic code, gained show more from the blood sample taken when they are tattooed. These codes can ruin a person's life, if they have problems such as bipolar disorder or Parkinson's disease in their family. That's what happened to Kayla's friend Amber and her parents.

Following Gene Drake's example, people everywhere are resisting the tattoo, even though it means forfeiting any chance at a normal life as a part of society. People are burning off the tattoo, or, if they join in time, refusing to get it in the first place.

One day, Kayla sees a girl on TV with her face, telling people how happy she is about the bar code tattoo. Next thing she knows, this girl is everywhere, pretending to be Kayla, and promoting the bar code tattoo. Is she a digital fake? Or is there more to it than that?

Suzanne Weyn's novel takes place in a scary future society. It's especially scary because it really could come true. We've all read books about what the future will be like, and chances are, none of them are exactly right. Everyone predicts, though, that the government will have more and more control over our daily lives, maybe even getting to the intense and frightening level like that in BAR CODE REBELLION.

In this story, characterization takes a backseat to the action, but that's okay, as it's meant to be more about the plot and the setting than it is about the characters. Even though the characters feel a little two-dimensional, it's still a book worth reading, especially for fans of THE BAR CODE TATTOO. show less

I found the main character too passive for my tastes. She seemed to be pulled along by forces that were beyond her control, and not really able to make many decisions for herself. Still it was a very readable book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys dystopian books.

There are very few books that I have ever not finished and this was one of them. The premise of the book was intriging, similar to The Uglies. At seventeen, each American citizen was supposed to recieve a tatoo on their inner wrist. Most people were compliant because you had to have the barcode to buy anything at a store, go to college, etc. Of course, there were the rebels who defied this govenment order. And of course, there was an evil business, Global 1, behind this all. The rebels developed paranornal abilities in order to communicate which would make it more difficult for the govenment to track them. This book was far from a believable fantasy! The Uglies or Feed would be much choices. This was rubbish and not worth finishing!