The Lottery

By Beth Goobie

Every student at Saskatoon Collegiate knew that all the most important aspects of school life were controlled by a secret club called Shadow Council. Each fall, Shadow held a traditional lottery during which a single student's name was drawn. The rest of the student body called the student the lottery winner. But Shadow Council knew better; to them the winner was the lottery victim. Whatever the label, the fated student became the Council's go-fer, delivering messages of doom to selected targets. In response, the student body shunned the lottery winner for the entire year. This year's victim was fifteen-year-old Sally Hanson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Oct 1, 2002
• ISBN: 9781551438689

Beth Goobie

Beth Goobie grew up in a family in which the appearance of a normal childhood hid many secrets. She moved away to attend university, became a youth residential treatment worker and studied creative writing at the University of Alberta. She is the award-winning author of over twenty novels, including The Pain Eater, The Lottery, the CLA Award-winning Before Wings, and the adult novel The First Principles of Dreaming. Beth makes her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Reviews for The Lottery

[cmcvittie_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When frade ten student, Sal is chosen by Saskatoon Collegiate's Shadow Council to win the Lottery, she is set up for year of victimization and shunning by the entire student body. Having survived the grieving process after the death of her father, she is stronger than she, or any of the Shadow Council, thinks. Her relationship with her brother deepens when she discovers his secret and she comes to grips with the conflicted emotions she feels about being a victim who has to obey all the S.C.'s wishes. Goobie builds tension effectively and while there is an occasional use of profanity, it is not gratuitous. Like Sal, my stomach alternated between feeling like I'd swallowed Javex or Drano as the increasingly nasty "tortures" are handed out by the senior students of Shadow Council. Effectively, Willis, the president of S.C. proves to be likeable, but complicit in the culture that allows for an annual scapegoating of one student.

[elissajanine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book takes the concept of Shirley Jackson's short story of the same name and places it in a high school setting--like Jackson's short, The Lottery raises questions about why society needs a victim. The protagonist is Sal, a fifteen-year-old third clarinettist and this year's Shadow Council lottery winner: the dud of the year. Nobody will speak to her or acknowledge her existence except the mysterious Shadow Council, an elite group ruling the school with fear. I enjoyed the concept of this book and the interplay between Sal and the other characters. There was an interesting motif of the musical duet called "Inside the Question"--the song written by the president of the Shadow Council and practiced in secret with Sal--and this gave the tense and haunting story some extra symbolic layers. I liked the way even the worst of the Shadow Council was a complex character who says, "I look in the mirror and my face gets further and further away..."The novel has a way of feeling not quite contemporary--nods to The Chocolate War and A Separate Peace give it a sort of timeless feel to it. Sal's character is generally strong and funny, even when she is playing the docile victim.I do think the book possibly tries to tackle too many things at once--the plotline about Sal's guilt about her father's car crash, the autistic girl, the wheelchair-bound friend who first betrays her and then is redeemed, and especially the issue with her former best friend's brother--and it's sort of like there isn't enough space in the book to adequately explore and resolve all of these. Still, the book was engaging from beginning to end, with strong prose and interesting conflicts.

[kdemott_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I thought I would enjoy this book, the premise seemed interesting and very pertinent to teens. It is about high school mind games, bullying and popularity. The story was slow and predictable. The ending did not tie up any loose ends, the book just stopped without a feeling of closure.