The Measure by Nikki Erlick

This is a great discussion book! I highly recommend it for book clubs. The premise is that everyone 22 years old or older, worldwide, gets a box delivered to them on the same night. Inside the box is a string, along with a message: The measure of your life lies within. So every adult gets a string, but the strings are all different lengths. At first people think it represents how long each person has left to live. Before too long though, they realize that the length of the string represents the length of their entire life. So, for obvious reasons, people who receive a short string are upset. Every day, as people turn 22 years old, they receive their box.

It's super interesting, and completely realistic, how different people react to the length of their strings. People are quickly referred to as "short-stringers" or "long-stringers". Short-stringers are abandoned by their significant others because of their short lifespan. Short-stringers decide not to have children, leave their jobs to travel, give up on their long-term goals/dreams. Short-String therapy groups are formed for support. It doesn't take long for society to be prejudiced against them. The military forces everyone in a military service to show their strings. The people with short strings are relegated to desk jobs. They only want long-stringers in active combat or in high positions.

There is a presidential election coming up, so the presidential candidates use string length to try to get elected. Counties like China force their citizens to register their string length with their government. Some long-stringers do crazy, dangerous things because they know they will live a long life. What some don't realize though, is that they could live a long life being paralyzed from the neck down because of some stupid stunt. Living a long life doesn't mean that it will be a good life!

There are some people that choose not to open their box. They want to just live their life not knowing how long they have. Some of these people are betrayed by their family members or significant others, who open their boxes without their knowledge of consent.

Again, this is a great discussion book! So many different opinions!

Wendy's Rating: *****