Was at dinner with friends the other night and discussion turned to a book that our friends could not identify.
It does not at all sound familiar to me, but I assured them that I had sources which likely could identify it.
What they remember of the story:
A group of teenagers are in a place comprised mostly (completely) of rooms separated by stairs. In order to be fed the group had to perform increasingly elaborate rituals. The group dynamics, by the end, became a bit Lord of the Flies. They don’t remember specific actions within the book or how it ends.
The two people who read it did so in elementary school meaning the book was written no later than 1984 or so, though probably much earlier.
They both insist it was book length but that may not be true.
A varied group of youngsters inexplicibly find themselves lost in a strange mazelike environment. There’s no apparent way out, and the only source of food is a dispenser that only works if you perform a series of actions that becomes more elaborate over time, evolving into a bizarre sort of dance. Two of the children rebel against the manipulation and refuse to go along, even though it means they nearly starve to death.
SPOILER ALERT
At the end of the story, it turned out that they were guinea pigs in a psychology experiment run by a totalitarian government.
Damn people, I remember the good ol’ days when this would have been answered before I could reload the thread after submitting it! Come on people!
Seriously, though, thanks a bunch Lumpy!
Hope you don’t mind but I plan to take full credit for this when I tell them about it. Apparently those two have been searching for it for quite a while.