The Picky Parents Guide to I Am MargaretBook...The Picky Parents Guide to I AM MARGARET ......
Transcript of The Picky Parents Guide to I Am MargaretBook...The Picky Parents Guide to I AM MARGARET ......
The Picky Parents Guide to I AM MARGARET
Book 1: I AM MARGARET
WARNING: This series is PG: Parental Guidance Suggested The I AM MARGARET books are an exciting new series by a British Catholic author that explore a future
dystopian world where humans are seen as mere body parts and faith in God is a crime with a terrible
penalty. These books explore in deep and moving ways what it means to be Catholic under duress, and
show young adult Catholics making hard and heroic choices to defend life and to live out their Catholic
faith. There’s some harsh stuff along the way, which is why Chesterton Press recommends these books
for ages 16+. There is some graphic violence, and there are difficult moral situations, but we judge that
the powerful portrayal of heroic goodness will more than balance out the tough content.
However, parents and teachers might want to read the books themselves before recommending them
to younger readers. In this guide, we’ve tried to list all the topics that might be of concern. This guide
contains SPOILERS so if you are planning to read the books yourself, you might not want to read on.
The Story Background In the dystopian world of I AM MARGARET, religion is outlawed and membership in the Catholic Church
(known as the Underground) is punishable by a gruesome death, similar to the “hanging, drawing, and
quartering” with which Catholics were punished in Elizabethan England.
The Government enforces a relentlessly secular culture. Marriage is outlawed but genetically‐and‐
racially compatible couples can register to have two allowed children. Girls are given contraceptive
implants as children, and sexual intercourse is strictly banned until age 18, when teenagers are expected
become sexually active (but never pregnant). Sexual activity between over‐age‐18 “new Adults” is taken
for granted, and anyone who lives a chaste life is suspected of being a ‘Believer’ and accused.
Most importantly in the novel, inferior humans who have escaped abortion and infanticide are sorted
out of the general population at the age of 18, and kept in government facilities where they are fed and
exercised until their tissues and body parts reach prime condition, at which point they are killed and
their bodies recycled for the medical community to use to treat other patients.
This is the harsh world of the 18‐year‐old heroine, Margaret Verrall (Margo), and the book reflects these
severe, secular, and not‐unimaginable realities. Margo, a compassionate girl who looks out for her
special‐needs friends in the Facility where they are imprisoned, is a baptized and confirmed Catholic
who loves her faith. Her parents courageously run an underground Mass center which hides priests and
allows underground Catholics to receive the sacraments, risking grisly execution by doing so. Because of
this, Margo herself walks a fine line of being Christ to others while not allowing anyone to guess her
secret faith.
Difficult Moral Situations For years, Margo has been in love with her childhood friend Bane Marsden, an unbeliever who has
resigned himself to her dangerous Catholicism. Their relationship is pure and chaste, but both jokingly
admit to the difficulties of remaining so. When Bane discovers that Margo has failed to qualify as a New
Adult, he proposes to her, vowing to rescue her from the Facility before she can be murdered and
“recycled.” They share an intense but sweet kiss as an engaged couple before they are separated. Later,
they both acknowledge their passionate love for one another but are determined to wait until marriage.
On the way to the Facility, Margo meets a blind boy, Jonathan Revan (Jon), who is a friend of Bane’s
from another town. Because Jon is a rare tissue type, the doctors at the Facility want to keep him safe,
and when Jon is caught in the cross‐fire between rival gangs in the boys’ ward, he is sent to the girls’
ward for safekeeping. Since he is physically attractive, all the girls in the dorm want to sleep with him
and demand that he pick a partner. The language used in this situation is frank but not graphic.
Margo discovers that Jon is also a Catholic. His parents run a safe house which shelters traveling priests
and other Believers, so in order to deflect suspicion he proposes that they pretend to be a couple and
share a bed in the dorm. Realizing the extreme difficulty of their situation and wanting to protect their
respective families, and many others, Margo eventually agrees. So they share a bed but remain chaste
for the remainder of their stay in the dormitory. The difficulties of remaining pure in this extreme
situation are portrayed realistically and tastefully, and both Jon and Margo are heroic in their resolve.
Margo, Bane, and Jon begin working out a plan to rescue not only Margo but all of the prisoners. At one
point, Margo is trapped alone with a guard who is a known pervert and he begins to assault her. She
uses the opportunity to steal his security badge, grabbing the guard’s privates, and escaping in a clever
way. Some crass slang (British) is used by other characters to describe what happened in this scene. The
Major in charge of the Facility punishes the guard by carving the shape of a man’s genitalia on his face as
a warning. Again, this is a harsh and frightening scene, but the emphasis is not on the grossness of the
sin and punishment, but on the heroism of a Catholic girl faced with an extreme situation.
Graphic violence The young adults at the Facility are destined to be put to sleep and their bodies taken apart in a process
known as ‘dismantlement’. Those body parts are then recycled to cure other people. One girl is taken to
this fate soon after they arrive. Priests and Catholics who will not deny their faith are assigned to the
harshest penalty of “conscious dismantlement,” being given a paralyzing drug that nevertheless allows
them to feel pain during the operation. This threat is a very strong reality that the characters
contemplate, especially when deciding whether or not to hold onto their Catholic faith.
A sadistic female guard forces Margo and the handicapped girls in her charge to watch while a priest
(whom Margo knows) is consciously dismantled. The scene is described in detail though a lot is left to
the reader’s imagination. The guard uses it to prove to her charges that there is no God, and that the
human being has no soul. While the martyrdom of the priest is bloody, it is valiant. But Margo becomes
terribly afraid of having the same penalty exacted upon her, and a serious struggle in her soul begins.
During a secret visit, Bane describes to Margo how he was tricked into going on a raid with the
Resistance during which several factory guards were murdered, giving a fairly graphic, description.
At the climax of the book, Margo and Bane successfully free the special‐needs young adults from the
Facility. Margo returns to save a girl scheduled to die. In the process Margo is caught. Despite her fear,
she manages to refuse to deny God, and is sentenced to immediate Conscious Dismantlement. The
Major of the Facility (Lucas Everington) tries to make her change her mind by carving a cross on her
forehead, but she still refuses to deny Christ. Strong language (mostly British slang) is used during this
scene. The operation begins.
It is graphic and terrifying, but fortunately Bane and a priest friend (who was a former Dismantler)
manage to interrupt it and save Margo’s life before any crucial organs are removed. Margo and her
friends escape, but still find themselves in peril of being caught by government forces as the book ends.