I've always enjoyed the kind of science fiction where it's more than just a futuristic world with cool technology and a fun story. Flowers For Algernon examines what could happen if we could artificially increase someone's intelligence level. It also looks at how we treat those who have mental disabilities.

The book is centered on Charlie Gordon, who has low IQ at age 32. He works in a bakery where he sweeps the floors and goes to an adult learning centre where he is very motivated to learn to read and write. It is because of his motivation that he is selected for an experiment that has been successful so far on animals, making them into geniuses. All Charlie has ever wanted was to read and write, so he signs up willingly.

As with most things in life, intelligence comes with a cost. The smarter Charlie becomes the more he remembers and figures out about his upbringing. It's absolutely heartbreaking. The friends he thought he had and even his family treated him with cruelty. He realizes what he thought was kindness was often people taking advantage of him. It was so difficult getting through this portion of the book. Hearing how he was so often treated as less than human. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, it is determined that the "cure" for nature's mistakes is not permanent. Charlie will start to regress to where he was before or even worse. I was destroyed at the end of this book. Utterly destroyed as he began to forget and lose all the things he learned and understood. This book is brilliant but also incredibly heartbreaking.