The Bar Code Tattoo

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn. It was a captivating page-turner and I would give it 5 stars and two thumbs up. I am a student athlete in college so I don't have a lot of free time on my hands, but I made time for this book and eagerly read it over spring break. I couldn't put it down!

The book is set in the future at the year of 2025. Society is drastically different and everyone is encouraged to get a "barcode tattoo". This tattoo basically contains all of your information. There is no longer a need to carry a driver's license, credit cards, or any other documents - it's all accessed by scanning the tattoo. While I was reading, I thought this sounded pretty convenient and cool!

The barcode tattoo seems great, but after you read and become connected to the main character, Kayla, I guarantee that you, too, will side against it.

Bad things start happening to those in society who have gotten the tattoo. The tattoo drove Kayla's father into a deep depression until he killed himself, and then her mother started going insane too - abusing drugs and alcohol, and trying to burn her tattoo off of her skin. There's something more in that tattoo that the government isn't telling. But what? Why is this all happening? What else is stored in the tattoo?

Kayla doesn't have a tattoo, and even when the law is passed requiring everyone to have a tattoo once they turn 17, she refuses and literally runs for her life.

Kayla is totally against the tattoos and joins a movement called "Decode" with some people from her school. They don't want to be a "code". They are individuals and believe in rights. They fight against the government and run away from the "globalofficers".

This young adult novel was packed full with romance, mystery, and survival. It was a little controversial at times because it talked about cloning, genetics, and evolution, but despite that I loved the book. It was weird thinking, "Wow, 2025 is in 10 years..."

I definitely recommend this book. I cannot wait for summer when I can read the next two books in the series!

This review is, by its nature, going to contain spoilers. You've been warned.

So, in this book we have Kayla, a conspiracy, and tattoos. And a heck of a lot of bad writing, so let's get started listing it as it goes!

1. Kayla. Kayla, Kayla, Kayla. Who the heck are you? This book is written in the freakin' first person, and at the end of it I'm still not sure what sort of a person Kayla is other than that she starts off being irrationally scared of the bar code tattoo and finds out that it's rational after all. All the characterization in this book is flat and bland (I'll get a note on the villains in a bit!), but it's terrible when it happens to the *narrator*, don't you think? If anybody in the book should have a personality, shouldn't it be our first-person protagonist? And yet, at the end, all I have are a collection of bare facts - she likes art, hates doing computers in school, and hooks up with disreputable folks all the time.

2. The bad guys. Well, we don't get to see any of the big bads - maybe in the next book (which I bought cheap so I suppose I'd better read), but we do get to see a few of the little bads - kids from Kayla's bar-code-resistance group who not only turned to the dark side but now go about forcibly trying to convert others to getting coded. One of them turns out to be a mega-problem, the other is all sighing and unrequited-crushing all over the place and angsting over having to turn Kayla in for a crime he knows or suspects she didn't commit when he also knows that he's wrong about tricking other people into getting bar codes. Or something, I don't know.

3. The science. "Oh, the people without barcodes are getting all psychic and all because evolution is forcing this on them!" Yeah, um, no. Evolution doesn't work that way, and being a pariah doesn't work that way either. "Oh, bar codes are inherently evil because the megacorporation that rules the world (more on this in a bit) is now cloning people and... stuff... and anyway if humans decide who gets to reproduce evolution won't work right!" Again, um, no. Humans have, for tens of thousands of years, decided who gets to reproduce. That's part of evolution. We don't just go out and do it in the street with whoever.

What's really annoying is that there's a good point in their commentary here (more on what that commentary *is* in the next section) but it's completely covered up by the bad science. Ugh.

4. Massive worldwide conspiracies ahoy! So, the bar code tattoo is being pushed semi-secretly by a worldwide company that owns all the seeds (which are all genetically modified and only bear fruit for one season so you have to keep buying - this is truth in fiction!) and all the livestock and the post offices and, like, everything. And not content with simply amassing power and cash, they've decided to play their hand at being outright evil, so now they've started:

Cloning (evilly)
Not allowing clones to get the tattoos that are about the only form of money left and then some
Secretly spreading information through the tattoos about people's genetic codes (this deserves a section of its own, hold on) just to mess with them
Controlling all the hospitals so nurses secretly kill everybody over the age of 80 and any baby whose genetic code indicates that it might, in the future, become sick

This is all so they can ineptly control human evolution. Or something, their motives aren't really explored.

The last one is what really gets me. I can believe that a shadowy organization might promote some of these things, sure... but exactly how many nurses and doctors are there? NONE of them is coming forward about this? Not a one? REALLY? They ALL are just happily going along with this little plan even though it's secret because, after all, it's evil and still illegal? REALLY?

The problem with conspiracy theories is that they rely upon conspiracies. And in the long run, I don't think a conspiracy of millions is going to stay secret for as long as this one apparently has.

5. Okay, so the bar code tattoos "really" contain information about people's genetic codes, so when scanned your employer knows if you're prone to schizophrenia or if, alternatively, you've got the code of an uberman. And people are being promoted or are losing their jobs because of this information, and they're being unable to purchase things at stores and all that. But nobody *knows* about it, and if you try telling people your fortunes changed dramatically, for better or worse, after getting the tattoo they think you're paranoid. Even though this happens to about half the people in one small high school, so you'd think it wouldn't be that secret after all.

Here's the thing. If it's really so secret... how do all the bosses know about this to discriminate? Again, it's the same problem as the nurses. Nobody is willing to cut a million dollar deal and come forward with their shocking tell-all about this? NOBODY?

6. In addition to the bar codes, we get hints that things have gotten a lot more repressive since 2004 when this book was published. In just 21 years tobacco and permanent decorative tattoos have been made illegal. College has gotten WAY more prohibitively expensive than it ever has been before. Only a few paranoid weirdoes think there's anything wrong with the government being able to track your every move (tattoos required to pay tolls) and purchase (no cash money anymore), or with locking up teenagers for not being tattooed.

In fairness, this theme was common in fiction so soon after 9/11. All the same... sheesh. Things just don't change as fast as all that. (Also? I highly doubt that at ANY point in the forseeable future we'll be living in a world where all art is done on computer and you have to go to art school to get an art job.)

Going along with that, though, the government's response to all this is to discredit the resistors by saying they're immature criminals, and that people with problems are suffering from paranoia. Their denials of a problem are so ham-fisted that your average seven year old would see through them, but the residents of three continents (Europe, Asia, and all of the US are stated as being highly bar-coded) don't? Really? People are that stupid in 2025? Maybe they do need to be watched for their own protection!

7. The whole thing was sprinkled in with random bits from Revelations. In real life, when I see people quoting from Revelations I put them in my crackpot file. Admit it, you do too. Why would people who honestly have dirt on real conspiracies waste their time discrediting themselves? Okay, so they were actually being led by a bar code enthusiast, got it, but they outnumbered him! Didn't any of them have the sense to see what a bad idea it is to add Revelations to... well, anything?

They say it is so convenient, everyone's getting it, why carry all your information when you can wear it? Everyone says the new "bar code tattoo" is just another way of identification, but what if you don't want to become a code? What if there is something in the code you don't know about? Or is it really just a convenient invention of the time? This is what Kayla asks herself in this suspenseful thriller The Bar Code Tattoo written by Suzanne Weyn, where a girl who believes that there should be more to people than just a code and will do anything to keep from giving into the idea.

For readers who are not a huge fan of science fiction, Suzanne Weyn does a fantastic job of describing how this exact same problem in the story that Kayla faces could become a reality in the future. I would recommend this book to anyone that is curious to know what the world could be like some day if technology becomes so powerful it actually controls the people who created it.

Inthe book the bar code tattoo, Kayla is destined to stopthe bar code. After her dad committing scuicide, and her mom dying she is on the run. she gets to a mountaian and is constaintly stealing food to live on. She has a dream she is in wasington, with planes zoomming by. If you want to know more READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

This science fiction, breath taking thriller will capture your inner heart and make you wonder about the years that are to come. Seventeen year old Kayla Reed finds herself lost and confused about the new fad of how to carry all your personal information: the bar code. Only, what if you say know, by making that one choice Kayla faces serious consequences. Her whole high school starts turning against her, and terrible things happen to her family and friends. Nothing is left of the life she once had. Her only choice is to run for what she has left. Struggling for survival, danger follows her everywhere and can't seem to escape the horror of the bar code.

This was not one of the best books I have ever read, but it gave me a good visual picture in my head about what the future might be like. It was hard to relate to what they were talking about since it was in the future. It didn't really seem that believable at first but once the story and the plot got going you could relate a little bit easier. This would be a good story for someone who want to know what the future may be like someday.

Suzanne Weyn created a story that a much deeper meaning than what the title suggests in The Bar Code tattoo. The story is a battle between conformity and individuality that pits a girl who stands for what she beleives in against society. The story takes place in a futeristic era where money is pretty much useless because the bar code tattoo can be used as a substitute for money. The holder of the tattoo can include any information that the holder wants. After somebody gets the tattoo, the tattoo becomes their identity. Kayla doesn't want to become just another code in society, so she refuses the tattoo. This dicision outcasts her and bad things happen. The story was really intruiging and can be read by anyone.

Suzanne Weyn created a story that a much deeper meaning than what the title suggests in The Bar Code tattoo. The story is a battle between conformity and individuality that pits a girl who stands for what she beleives in against society. The story takes place in a futeristic era where money is pretty much useless because the bar code tattoo can be used as a substitute for money. The holder of the tattoo can include any information that the holder wants. After somebody gets the tattoo, the tattoo becomes their identity. Kayla doesn't want to become just another code in society, so she refuses the tattoo. This dicision outcasts her and bad things happen. The story was really intruiging and can be read by anyone.

This science fiction, breath taking thriller will capture your inner heart and make you wonder about the years that are to come. Seventeen year old Kayla Reed finds herself lost and confused about the new fad of how to carry all your personal information: the bar code. Only, what if you say know, by making that one choice Kayla faces serious consequences. Her whole high school starts turning against her, and terrible things happen to her family and friends. Nothing is left of the life she once had. Her only choice is to run for what she has left. Struggling for survival, danger follows her everywhere and can't seem to escape the horror of the bar code.

This was not one of the best books I have ever read, but it gave me a good visual picture in my head about what the future might be like. It was hard to relate to what they were talking about since it was in the future. It didn't really seem that believable at first but once the story and the plot got going you could relate a little bit easier. This would be a good story for someone who want to know what the future may be like someday.

This book is really quite good because it shows where the world is probably headed unless we get some good people to lead out country. In the beginnig, it it very morbid and depressing. The bad aspects (while they really add to the story and make it better)are quickly over, and it becomes and man- or woman, in this case- vs. herself vs. nature type of novel. Kayla is just trying to survive and overcome her fears, with the addition of becoming a fugitive in a few short months and the ever-present fear of becomeing insane due to a family gene. The Bar Code Tattoo is something anyone who works for the government should read, especially id they are high up. It is also a good book for science fiction fans, as it takes place in the future. I myself have read it four times.

This book is truly phenomenal and a must-read for all readers. I still find myself looking back at the book and pondering it's ideas. I read the book whe. It first came out and after all that time I still find myself glad I read it. :)

This book only sounds good in the plot review. In truth, it is an absolutely horribly written book with plot twists that are so predictable and cookie cutter characters. There is hardly any real worth to reading this book, which is dissappointing because the idea behind it is very interesting, although not original.

The book started out and continued to be a great, exciting story that kept me and my daughter wanting to read more. At the very end, in the last 20-25 pages its appeal declined. I don't want to give the ending away, but it mentions things like our ancestors, the apes, talks a lot about evolution, and has people getting energy from the earth and releasing it in strange, telepathic ways. As a Christian I would not want my daughter to have read it without me. I am glad we read it together so we can discuss the things that go against our beliefs. We definitely decided against reading the sequal "BAR CODE REBELLION"