Is it hard to read?
No, the prose is direct and conversational, with dialogue and a brisk, linear story. Familiar school routines make the ideas about authoritarianism accessible without requiring background knowledge.
Fiction · Novel · Mystery & Thriller · Political Fiction
The Wave
Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 24 / 100Light
- Length
- 144 pagesLaurel Leaf · 1981
- Reading time
- 3 hat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Brisk
- Emotional intensity
- 3 / 5
About 3 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 6 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
When his students struggle to understand how ordinary people accepted Nazi rule, Gordon High history teacher Ben Ross introduces an experiment in discipline and group loyalty. Called the Wave, it offers students a sense of belonging and power, and soon spreads beyond his classroom. School newspaper editor Laurie Saunders grows alarmed as the movement's demands begin to override friendships and independent judgment.
Reader notes
Short and straightforward, the YA novel uses familiar school routines and plainly described characters to approach authoritarianism at an everyday scale. Its warning about conformity is direct and openly instructional, and it is fiction inspired by a real experiment, not a documentary reconstruction.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Conversational · Dialogue-driven · Direct
- Tone
- Earnest · Tense · Unsettling
- Structure
- Linear
- Driven by
- Ideas · Plot · Relationships
- Point of view
- Multiple viewpoints
- Setting
- School or campus
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 2 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Belonging
- Identity
- Justice
- Oppression
- Politics and ideology
- Power
Content notes
- Violence
- Mild
- Sexual content
- None
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- None
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Questions readers ask
Is it a true story?
Not really, it is fiction inspired by a real experiment, rather than a documentary reconstruction. The school setting and characters serve a direct warning about conformity and authoritarianism.
Does it feel more like a thriller or a lesson?
The warning about conformity is direct and openly instructional, but the story is also tense and unsettling. The classroom movement spreads, and its demands begin to override friendships and independent judgment.
What makes the school setting important?
Familiar classroom routines show how discipline and group loyalty can offer belonging and power. Laurie Saunders’s alarm brings the cost into focus as the movement starts to override friendships and independent judgment.
How long is it?
144 pages in the Laurel Leaf 1981 mass market paperback edition.
Which edition is shown here?
Laurel Leaf · 1981 · Mass Market Paperback. ISBN 9780440993711.
How long does it take to read The Wave?
About 3 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 144-page Laurel Leaf edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Todd Strasser
Todd Strasser is a prolific American writer whose more than 140 books and other works span young-adult and middle-grade fiction, short stories, and nonfiction. Also published as Morton Rhue and T. S. Rue, he has moved between comic series such as Help! I’m Trapped In and stark novels about young people confronting coercion, neglect, and violence. His prose is typically direct and conversational, often driven by dialogue or multiple voices. In The Wave, a classroom exercise reveals how quickly discipline and group identity can become authoritarian; Give a Boy a Gun reconstructs a school shooting through conflicting interviews; and Boot Camp follows a teenager subjected to institutional humiliation and force. These books show Strasser’s recurring interest in the pressures exerted by schools, families, peer groups, and other systems that claim authority over adolescents. Yet his range also includes playful body-swap comedy, action-oriented adaptations, topical nonfiction, and Fallout, which combines memoir with speculative history. What distinguishes the body of work is its accessibility across sharply different tones without avoiding difficult social questions.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Laurel Leaf
- Publication year
- 1981
- Format
- Mass Market Paperback
- Pages
- 144
- ISBN
- 9780440993711
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1981
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Mystery & Thriller · Political Fiction · Young Adult · Mystery and thriller
- Editions
- 16
- Languages
- 4 (German, English, Spanish, Unspecified)