LIZARD PEOPLE

Seventeen-year-old Ben Mander has a particularly tumultuous life: His mother, a paranoid schizophrenic, refuses to take her medication and when under duress, spins outrageous tales of Lizard People; Ben’s father, divorced from his mother and estranged from his current girlfriend, spends most of his days haunting sleazy bars and crashing in cheap motels. While waiting for his mother to be admitted to the psychiatric ward—where, according to Ben, one can “meet the nicest people”—he befriends charismatic Marco, who tells him wild stories of visiting the future—and of the same Lizard People his mother described. Ben’s struggle to hang on to reality and the intensity of his situation is compelling; he is so sadly adult for his age, though at the same time so solidly teenaged in his thoughts and rash decisions. With wild, manic pacing, readers are pulled alongside Ben to discover what is real—and what is not—building to an unsettling conclusion that is sure to leave them talking about this psychological thriller long after the final page is turned. (Fiction. YA)