A lot of kids seem to dislike this book; it's one of the ones they always make you read in high school and analyze to death. Luckily, I got a good English teacher. But that aside, this is one of my favorite "classics" ever.

On the surface, it's just another survival story, one that progresses to a violent and unfortunate struggle. But underneath, there is a seething, fascinating sea of allegory and metaphor and symbolism. And I happen to be a sucker for that kind of stuff.

Because I have always been able to sense a very human truth in "Lord of the Flies". As awful and repulsive as the boys' behavior is, you can't help seeing that's it's true. This is how human beings behave when fear and ignorance prey on them. Their violence and madness is very real, and that's one of the scariest things about this book.

Ralph and Piggy, Simon and Jack, opposites, foils, representatives of the different strengths of the human psyche. Their nemesis the Beast, the invisible terror that drives their descent into savagery.

And then of course, there's the Lord of the Flies himself, the chilling avatar of darkness who knows what's really going on.

"Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!"