SKYWATCHERS

A group of teen Skywatchers in Cold War–era Monterey, California, go missing after they see a strange light in the sky.

The teens are members of the Skywatch club, based on the real-life Ground Observer Corps volunteers who watched the skies, reporting any weird observations. One night Teddy, John, Caroline, and Bunny spot a mysterious light in the woods and follow it. They go missing for days and reappear one at a time with no memory of what happened. Except Teddy never comes back. Weirdly, Bunny now has the ability to speak Mandarin, John is a piano virtuoso and a lethal fighter, and Caroline has gone from squeamish to administering competent first aid. Through flashbacks, the mystery of what occurred slowly unravels. The first half of the novel is evenly paced and well-plotted. The historical time period, astute character development, and suspense-filled writing will draw readers in. However, the latter half falls apart, weighed down by exposition, and this mélange of science-fiction tropes never quite coalesces. Time travel, parallel universes, and aliens are all bandied about as explanations for the group’s disappearance, but Arcos never lands comfortably on any of them. Scientific theories abound, and staggering infodumps make the novel difficult to slog through. The rushed ending doesn’t feel well earned and will leave readers unsatisfied. John is Japanese American, Bunny is Puerto Rican, Teddy is Italian American, and Caroline is white.

A failure to launch.