A suspenseful, futuristic tale that will keep young readers entertained.
Black’s debut YA sci-fi novel confronts the realities of life in a genetically modified world.
Valeria the Fifth, or “V,” as she prefers to be called, is in the “Fifth Order” at a place called the Center. She and the 15 other people have all been genetically engineered to be more capable than other humans—stronger, faster, and most importantly, smarter; their thoughts are “collected” by a Center computer system and shared among them to help them learn faster. Now that she’s 16, it’s time for her to begin her own genetic-modification research; she hopes that her work will be published like those in the Orders before her—in fact, it’s the ultimate goal of everyone at the Center. They all live their lives by the Codex, a strict set of rules that govern how they are to act—and even feel. But V has a secret: She’s been breaking the rules by spending time with a boy in her Order that she likes named Marcus the Fifth. After V discovers that the Center’s director—whom she already despised—was responsible for editing her genetic makeup, she begins to rebel even more. She enlists the help of Julius the Fifth, another Order member, to detach her mind from the rest of the collective. Although this freedom comes with a price, it inspires V to try to build a life of her own. However, the world outside the Center is harsher than she expected. Debut author Black puts forth a rather original novel about teenage rebellion, and also reveals the harsh realities that come with tasting freedom, only to lose it again. The main character, V, may be somewhat conveniently “special,” compared with the rest of the collective, but the author does a fair job of supplying her with believable motivations for her actions. She’s not the most likable character, but she does have a redemption arc that effectively showcases Black’s writing talent. The story as a whole has a number of twists and turns, and although some are moderately predictable, others will surprise readers and leave them eager for more.
A suspenseful, futuristic tale that will keep young readers entertained.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: IlluminateYA Fiction
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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