(Book) A look at the Wave, by Todd Strasser.

Never in my life would I expect to read something that would have changed my perspective so drastically. How looking at something one way can actually look completely different when you look at it differently.

The book is a fictionalised account of true events based around a social experiment from California.

Ben Ross is a history teacher who wants to show the students of his high school an in depth insight into Nazi Germany. He creates a cult type society that presents itself as equal, but like its namesake, it becomes to big for itself and, like the Third Reich it is based on, must crash and fall.

The style of writing, though simple, makes its point and that's what makes the overall message hit so hard. It draws you into the idealism that is at first presented. You are hooked within the first ten pages and seeing it through to the end has its emotional payoff.

This book is a perfect example of the corruption of idealism. How taking equality and distorting it can have disastrous effects on not only your immediate friends and family, but on a larger scale too.

I have rated this book 4 and a half stars out of 5.

It's available for e-download and in bookstores, both independent and not.