--- product_id: 3826424 title: "Variant" price: "CI$15" currency: KYD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://cayman.desertcart.com/products/3826424-variant store_origin: KY region: Cayman Islands --- # Variant **Price:** CI$15 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Variant - **How much does it cost?** CI$15 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [cayman.desertcart.com](https://cayman.desertcart.com/products/3826424-variant) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life. He was wrong. Now he's trapped in a school that's surrounded by a razor-wire fence, where video cameras monitor his every move—and where breaking the rules equals death. All Benson wants is to find a way out. But when he stumbles upon the real secret the school has been hiding, he realizes that escape may be impossible. Review: Hunger Games Eat Your Heart Out - I wasn't big into the YA fiction genre growing up. Every book that came out seemed to be a poor copy of Harry Potter or a thinly veiled Lord of the Rings rip off. There were some bright spots but as a whole I avoided the genre and moved to more mature subject matter. Recently though it seems that the YA genre is one of the few areas of fiction willing to innovate and try new directions. And it makes sense because the genre has to cater to the most difficult demographic: teens. I can't tell you how many teens I've known that dismiss reading as boring and pointless. I tell you this, if they had read Variant they would have had a completely different opinion. This is the best way to describe Variant. Take some of the darker mentalities of the critically acclaimed Hunger Games series. Add a dose of philosophy from Lord of the Flies. Now blend in some of the Battle School aspects of the classic Ender's Game. Throw in lots of tension and paranoia courtesy of the Canadian psychological horror/thriller film Cube. And last but not least tie this all together with the controversial Stanford Prison Experiment. Alone any one of these themes could overwhelm a lesser author. Robison Wells, it appears, has some seriously sick writing chops. Not only does Mr. Wells blend all these together into a fantastic story but he finds a way to transcend the building blocks and create something wholly his own. Benson Fisher is a loner. He is a foster kid who has never spent long in one place. He is a fighter. But deep down all he really wants is to be accepted. Benson wants to have the "real" high school experience. Play for a sports team, hang out with friends, even date. That's how Benson ends up applying for Maxfield Academy. Maxfield seems like any other private school from the pamphlets, uniforms and all. Of course once Benson reaches Maxfield it quickly becomes clear that it is anything but normal. Benson is an immediately likable character. From the start he realizes that things are not as they should be and throughout the novel he never stops thinking of ways to escape. Benson is a trouble maker and this is reinforced by the personalities of the other students of Maxfield. Without the presence of adults the kids have formed into gangs for the sake of survival. There is the Society, upstanding boys and girls who wish only to obey and enforce the rules and protect the status quo. Havoc, kids who view the lack of adult supervision as a free pass for fun. And the V's (short for Variants) who are bound by their desire to escape. The gangs and characters all have unique personalities that provide a believable civilization inside this prison like school. There are so many layers of complexity to this school run by the students but I don't want to ruin any of the cool surprises. Variant is extremely tense. There is a heavy degree of paranoia that permeates the novel. Cameras and microphones keep tabs on the students with death being the ultimate punishment for disobedience. The exact nature of the containment of the children is unknown but the kids have their own theories. Some say that it is a giant experiment and the students themselves are just rats in a cage. Others suspect that Maxfield is a training ground for super soldiers. Whatever the reason, no one has ever pulled off a successful escape and kids have died trying. I think this is really what separates Variant from books that came out in my youth. Variant deals with mature subject matter. Wells makes no attempt to dumb down the story or tone down the seriousness of the situation. Wells treats young adults the way they wish to be treated: as young adults. The book features violence, though nothing that would be considered too shocking by the current generation. The real maturity comes from the philosophy involved. Wells sneaks a peak at the banality of evil, and really looks at what ordinary people are capable of in extraordinary situations. Like Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, Variant gives young readers and exciting story that won't patronize their intelligence. At the same time this book is hardly for young adults alone. Anyone can enjoy this well written thriller. There is action and romance, suspense and mystery. This book is ten times the book that The Hunger Games is. I honestly believe that given enough attention Variant can easily eclipse the titans of YA fiction. Buy this for your kids, especially if you have trouble getting them to read. Buy this for yourself if you want a nonstop thrill ride that will keep you reading late into the night. I agree with Publishers Weekly that this is hands down one of the best books of 2011. Enjoy! Review: It is a five star, totally fantastic YA book, that I will read again, and again. - Benson Fisher is looking for a brand new start at a brand new school. He is not prepared for what awaits him when he gets there. Strange happenings are occurring at Maxfield Academy where the students are running the school, with no adults in sight. From the very beginning you realize that Variant is not going to be like other books out there. I found I was drawn in from the minute he pulls up to the front doors of the school. Students standing at the windows are screaming at him, making this a very strange welcome to a new school. Oh yes, later Benson finds out it had been a warning for him to run while he had the chance. On the front cover of the book it says, "Trust No One" and in Benson's case it is good advice. From this point on it is such a wild ride. Every day, Benson finds more and more weird things about the school. They are not doing regular school work where the kids teach the classes,and they "earn" points so as to buy new clothes, snacks and paintball gear. He also plans every day how he is going to escape.This bothers many of the other students who don't want to see Benson in detention. Once you go to detention you are not heard of again.The people that he thinks he can trust, he finds their friendship is all a facade. Variant leaves you guessing through the whole book. I can guarantee you, that you will not guess about nor believe some of the things that are revealed. The end IS as shocking as everyone has been saying. This book is such a great mix of a dystopian theme and a surprising dash of sci-fi. The writing is clean and the characters are distinct. I can't wait to find out where the story will go from here. It all reminds me of mice in a cage running through tubes, they never realize that they are not getting anywhere. Is this what Benson is going to find out? If you are curious as to what I mean...well, you are just going to have to read the book. It is a five star, totally fantastic YA book, that I will read again, and again. I recommend this book for tweens, teens and adults. This will make a Fabulous Christmas Present, so buy away!! I promise you that you won't be disappointed!!! ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #227,490 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #93 in Teen & Young Adult Monster Fiction #208 in Teen & Young Adult Alien Science Fiction #220 in Teen & Young Adult Mystery & Thriller Action & Adventure | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 808 Reviews | ## Images ![Variant - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7189oPW27KL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hunger Games Eat Your Heart Out *by N***S on November 11, 2011* I wasn't big into the YA fiction genre growing up. Every book that came out seemed to be a poor copy of Harry Potter or a thinly veiled Lord of the Rings rip off. There were some bright spots but as a whole I avoided the genre and moved to more mature subject matter. Recently though it seems that the YA genre is one of the few areas of fiction willing to innovate and try new directions. And it makes sense because the genre has to cater to the most difficult demographic: teens. I can't tell you how many teens I've known that dismiss reading as boring and pointless. I tell you this, if they had read Variant they would have had a completely different opinion. This is the best way to describe Variant. Take some of the darker mentalities of the critically acclaimed Hunger Games series. Add a dose of philosophy from Lord of the Flies. Now blend in some of the Battle School aspects of the classic Ender's Game. Throw in lots of tension and paranoia courtesy of the Canadian psychological horror/thriller film Cube. And last but not least tie this all together with the controversial Stanford Prison Experiment. Alone any one of these themes could overwhelm a lesser author. Robison Wells, it appears, has some seriously sick writing chops. Not only does Mr. Wells blend all these together into a fantastic story but he finds a way to transcend the building blocks and create something wholly his own. Benson Fisher is a loner. He is a foster kid who has never spent long in one place. He is a fighter. But deep down all he really wants is to be accepted. Benson wants to have the "real" high school experience. Play for a sports team, hang out with friends, even date. That's how Benson ends up applying for Maxfield Academy. Maxfield seems like any other private school from the pamphlets, uniforms and all. Of course once Benson reaches Maxfield it quickly becomes clear that it is anything but normal. Benson is an immediately likable character. From the start he realizes that things are not as they should be and throughout the novel he never stops thinking of ways to escape. Benson is a trouble maker and this is reinforced by the personalities of the other students of Maxfield. Without the presence of adults the kids have formed into gangs for the sake of survival. There is the Society, upstanding boys and girls who wish only to obey and enforce the rules and protect the status quo. Havoc, kids who view the lack of adult supervision as a free pass for fun. And the V's (short for Variants) who are bound by their desire to escape. The gangs and characters all have unique personalities that provide a believable civilization inside this prison like school. There are so many layers of complexity to this school run by the students but I don't want to ruin any of the cool surprises. Variant is extremely tense. There is a heavy degree of paranoia that permeates the novel. Cameras and microphones keep tabs on the students with death being the ultimate punishment for disobedience. The exact nature of the containment of the children is unknown but the kids have their own theories. Some say that it is a giant experiment and the students themselves are just rats in a cage. Others suspect that Maxfield is a training ground for super soldiers. Whatever the reason, no one has ever pulled off a successful escape and kids have died trying. I think this is really what separates Variant from books that came out in my youth. Variant deals with mature subject matter. Wells makes no attempt to dumb down the story or tone down the seriousness of the situation. Wells treats young adults the way they wish to be treated: as young adults. The book features violence, though nothing that would be considered too shocking by the current generation. The real maturity comes from the philosophy involved. Wells sneaks a peak at the banality of evil, and really looks at what ordinary people are capable of in extraordinary situations. Like Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, Variant gives young readers and exciting story that won't patronize their intelligence. At the same time this book is hardly for young adults alone. Anyone can enjoy this well written thriller. There is action and romance, suspense and mystery. This book is ten times the book that The Hunger Games is. I honestly believe that given enough attention Variant can easily eclipse the titans of YA fiction. Buy this for your kids, especially if you have trouble getting them to read. Buy this for yourself if you want a nonstop thrill ride that will keep you reading late into the night. I agree with Publishers Weekly that this is hands down one of the best books of 2011. Enjoy! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It is a five star, totally fantastic YA book, that I will read again, and again. *by S***Y on November 5, 2011* Benson Fisher is looking for a brand new start at a brand new school. He is not prepared for what awaits him when he gets there. Strange happenings are occurring at Maxfield Academy where the students are running the school, with no adults in sight. From the very beginning you realize that Variant is not going to be like other books out there. I found I was drawn in from the minute he pulls up to the front doors of the school. Students standing at the windows are screaming at him, making this a very strange welcome to a new school. Oh yes, later Benson finds out it had been a warning for him to run while he had the chance. On the front cover of the book it says, "Trust No One" and in Benson's case it is good advice. From this point on it is such a wild ride. Every day, Benson finds more and more weird things about the school. They are not doing regular school work where the kids teach the classes,and they "earn" points so as to buy new clothes, snacks and paintball gear. He also plans every day how he is going to escape.This bothers many of the other students who don't want to see Benson in detention. Once you go to detention you are not heard of again.The people that he thinks he can trust, he finds their friendship is all a facade. Variant leaves you guessing through the whole book. I can guarantee you, that you will not guess about nor believe some of the things that are revealed. The end IS as shocking as everyone has been saying. This book is such a great mix of a dystopian theme and a surprising dash of sci-fi. The writing is clean and the characters are distinct. I can't wait to find out where the story will go from here. It all reminds me of mice in a cage running through tubes, they never realize that they are not getting anywhere. Is this what Benson is going to find out? If you are curious as to what I mean...well, you are just going to have to read the book. It is a five star, totally fantastic YA book, that I will read again, and again. I recommend this book for tweens, teens and adults. This will make a Fabulous Christmas Present, so buy away!! I promise you that you won't be disappointed!!! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Terrific *by H***0 on October 20, 2012* Is it just me, or are most young adult novels started to all look the same? It seems as if every author is trying their hand at writing the next big dystopian epic, featuring a young adolescent forced into a larger than life situation by an all-powerful totalitarian regime. Fortunately, Variant is able to distinguish its own identity from the pact despite sharing a few similarities with what has become an over-saturated sub-genre. It has its obvious influences which the author takes great liberty to respectively address, yet Variant has enough of its own originality to differentiate itself from a sea of dystopian fiction novels. Life hasn't been very fair to young Benson Fisher. A foster-child who has lived with more sets of parents and transferred to more schools than he can count. Yet an acceptance to Maxfield Academy seems like it would be the turning point for his life. Forgoing his older run-ins in dingy public schools, Benson is ready to start anew and rebuild his life within the confines of this illustrious private institution. That is, until he discovers that the school has no teachers or faculty, yet there's cameras almost everywhere watching their every move. The school's demands are seemingly random yet nonnegotiable, for disobedience in Maxfield Academy means death. To survive in this prison-like environment, the children have allocated themselves in three separate gangs rather than work together against a common foe. Benson is thrown into a world which he does not understand; where the rules are severe and the punishments are beyond inhumane. He'll need to find a way out of the academy while also surviving the harassment of the other gangs and the school's omniscient gaze. Through a line dialogue early on in the book, author Robinson Wells openly admits that The Lord of the Flies played a large influence in Variant's concept; involving the children isolated from society's guidelines. The only things preventing all-out anarchy are the school's disciplinary actions and the gangs' truce over mandatory tasks and privileges. Yet this doesn't prevent occasional violence from the children, it's theoretically controlled chaos. There are plenty of other influences that may or may not have played a part in inspiring Wells's vision. For example, the all-seeing all-controlling omnipresence of the school can be related to George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984. The character Benson Fisher reminiscent of Spartacus due to his defiance to enforced servitude; and you could even imagine a hint of the 1963 film The Great Escape. It's always enjoyable to sit back and just enjoy a light read, yet it's especially satisfying to read a book that has the reader contemplate the themes and issues while dictating their own stance on the characters' problem. Wells raises an interesting question in Variant, one which is far more daunting to answer than one would imagine. Throughout the story, Benson must wrestle with the notion of escaping the walls of Maxfield Academy and returning to what little of a life he previously had before. Yet as one character firmly states: is Benson being selfish? The answer seems obvious at first given his imprisonment against his will, yet attempting to escape may also inflict great harm upon the other children. Each of whom have grown accustomed to life in Maxfield over their years. Even the rival gangs within Maxfield's walls characterize a difference of opinion regarding their predicament. The Society encompasses the majority of the children; the ensemble who would rather bend knee to tyranny than rise up in rebellion in order to ensure their safety. On the other end of the spectrum is Havoc, a group of rebellious teens who prefer causing trouble provided they don't overstep the school's boundaries. In the middle of these two opposing factions are the Variants, hence the title. They're the group who wishes to eventually escape the confines of Maxfield Academy, albeit without Benson's exacerbated bravado. All of these elements attribute to a book that has more substance than the typical young adult novel. Yet I would prefer it if the book didn't bombard the reader early on with all of these details. It would have been to the book's benefit if Wells had integrated them in a more seamless manner. Variant's plot also benefits from a substantial amount of mystery and intrigue interwoven into its fabric. The very moment Benson sets foot on the front steps of Maxfield Academy, the reader is placed in a stasis of wonder that won't let go until the final page. What is the school's purpose, and what do they need the children for? These questions perplex the reader just as much as the characters, thus it immerses the reader further into the narrative and relates them to the protagonist. It's all given a very chilling vibe thanks to Well's excellent illustration of the school. From the orderly, yet seemingly pointless classes, to the walls, locked doors, and cameras that keeps everyone in check. The end result makes the reader begin to feel the same sense of claustrophobia as the protagonist. Pretty soon you might find yourself pleading for the kids to rally together and escape that horrible place and its wicked machinations. Regarding the characters; the majors are all excellently characterized, yet I feel Wells may have spread his cast a bit too thin. Characters like Benson and Jane for example succeed at elicited an emotional investment from the reader due to their superb illustration, yet other minor characters fail to achieve the same level of gravitas. I feel Wells should have focused on a smaller more focused cast of characters rather than utilize a vast amount in such a short book. Because the book always follows Benson's first-person perspective, quite a few of the characters end up feeling insignificant and underdeveloped; with some characters who blur together due to an absence of defining attributes. However, this issue isn't as severe as one might expect; for Variant's greatest strength is within the gravitas of its plot; which is uncovering the secret behind Maxfield Academy instead of focusing on the characters; though this also means that none of the characters are particularly memorable either. Though it isn't faultless, Variant is an excellent light-read that packs more substance than you might initially expect. The plot is captivating, the pacing is exquisite, the atmosphere is engrossing, and the characters are solid albeit uneven. I only wish that the book's ending didn't raise more questions than answers. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://cayman.desertcart.com/products/3826424-variant](https://cayman.desertcart.com/products/3826424-variant) --- *Product available on Desertcart Cayman Islands* *Store origin: KY* *Last updated: 2026-10-28*