LEGACY OF POWER

A teenage girl’s world gets turned upside down when she discovers her mother’s darkest secret in Bolick’s YA SF novel, the first in a series.

Charlie Conners is a 15-year-old living in a rural Georgia town in 1990. She returns home from school one day to witness her sickly mother, Candy, gun down two male intruders. Unbeknownst to Charlie,Candy used to be the leading sharpshooter on the planet Golvern, but on a trip to Earth, she fell in love with Gregory, a woodworker. When she found out she was pregnant with Charlie, Candy fled Golvern and has been in hiding on Earth ever since. Candy informs Charlie that not only does she have the ability to teleport, but she’s also inherited her mother’s power as a Protector. Candy, who is dying from cancer, begins to train Charlie and convinces her daughter to use her newly honed skills to end her life. A despondent Charlie then leaves home, thinking this will protect her father and younger sister, Lorraine, who has the same powers. She hitches a ride with a college student to the Atlanta airport, which proves to be a big mistake when she’s caught in a showdown with a super-fast murderer; this incident gets her noticed by a federal agency investigating unusual events (“Our organization handles the stranger cases”). Bolick wisely makes her lead character Charlie a blank slate, a teen who has spent her life hidden away in a rural small town. Surprise is Charlie’s go-to emotion, whether in response to Candy’s revelations or fantastic technology—but she’s ultimately revealed to be very intelligent as she learns more about herself and those around her, all of whom are shrouded in mystery, even to each other. That’s also what’s frustrating about this brief book: The series opener introduces many characters and settings, but precious little is developed and next to nothing is concluded. To be fair, that’s the nature of any series—the author has to draw in readers and keep them hanging on. Bolick succeeds magnificently at making Charlie’s complex world oh so enticing.

An intriguing protagonist makes this novel soar.