 Deborah Wilson Overstreet, writing in "The ALAN Review", says that the book explores the importance of taking responsibility for one's own self.In the novel, Kit demonstrates responsibility by actively being involved in her escape from Blackwood and helping the other students escape.Staff at the University of Iowa included the book in their 1975 Books for Young Adults list, which represents the popular reading choices of the junior and senior high school students they surveyed in Iowa.