Clements’s second sequel to the excellent Things Not Seen (2002) is even more disappointing than the first, Things Hoped For (2005). Diluting a thimbleful of plot with a gallon of hand-wringing analysis, he charts repeated encounters between blind Alicia, who narrates, and the invisible William, an ambiguous figure from the previous episode who has followed Alicia’s formerly invisible heartthrob Bobby back to Chicago with a warning that their mutual secret is in danger of coming out. Having described how she gets around with her seeing-eye dog, fretted at length about whether Bobby is drawn as strongly to her as she is to him and wondered whether William has a secret agenda, Alicia whips out her magic decloaking device. Restored to visibility, William steals away in the night as Alicia and Bobby snuggle down for a first deep kiss—followed, unsurprisingly, by Alicia’s rhapsodic meditation on same. An author usually good for clever premises and smart, likable characters has gone from talespinner to wheel spinner here. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
