A gritty thriller that puts the downside of superpowers into bracingly relatable terms.
In Johns’ YA SF novel, a genetically modified youth vies with others to retain possession of a mystery package.
The author envisions a near-future Chicago in which ambitious parents employed new drugs and DNA manipulations to produce fast-thinking, high-achieving progeny but instead birthed a misfit generation of “Energy” kids, also known as “E’s” or “Fleas.” These young adults indeed have above-average reaction times, muscular coordination, and agility but also suffer from attention deficits, mood disorders, sleep deprivation, sterility, and sociopathic tendencies, and they take special nutritional supplements and medication. The loose community of E youth are outcasts, shunned by the rest of society, whom they refer to as “Slugs”; however, some manage to eke out livings as couriers for criminal types. In Chicago, Zane,who goes by the nickname “Zip,” is tasked by gangsters to deliver a seemingly ordinary package, but some hostile force reaches Bolt, the intended recipient, first and threatens Zip, who flees. Zip is left with a very hot item and endless questions about whom to trust as well as intrusive thoughts about math problems, names for cats, the economics of the lumber industry, and whatever else intrudes on his mind. Such excessive rumination could have made the material a chore to read, but Johns keeps things under firm control with a largely chase-based plotline that stays fairly straightforward until the introduction of an array of last-act betrayals and twists. The story also features a love interest who seems hopelessly treacherous; this suits the prose, which also feels like something out of a hard-boiled detective story: “Ratchet winced when I mentioned Jbird. The sound of her neck breaking would be with us for a while.” The notion that heartless helicopter parenting brought on these superkids is a potent one, and it will give the material some cred with YA readers. Meanwhile, the swearing and sexuality stay in the PG-13 range.
A gritty thriller that puts the downside of superpowers into bracingly relatable terms.Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-952283-12-3
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Vernacular Books
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly...
In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility.
As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories—painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing.
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1993
Somberly beautiful.
A girl goes in search of her missing sister and discovers a strange hidden world of dreams.
Corin, who’s 18 and dark-skinned, strives to protect her 12-year-old sister, Elly. But life as a thief is full of struggle, poverty, and loss, even without Corin’s avoidance of other relationships. Elly clings to the promise of fairy tales, like the one that says a princess lies sleeping in an underground castle after pricking her finger on a spindle. After the sisters fight and Elly runs off, Corin searches for her in Gyldan’s old network of tunnels—and finds the tale is true: Cursed Princess Amelia, golden-haired, with eyes like “sea glass” and porcelain skin, lies asleep, surrounded by flowers. Corin enters the princess’ dreamworld—the place “where your subconscious desires come to life.” She meets Briar Rose, Amelia’s alter ego, who experienced her share of sadness and wanted to fall asleep. Also in the dreamworld is green-skinned Malicine, the nonbinary demon who, despite having placed the curse of eternal slumber on Amelia, is mostly friendly. All three are running from things they can’t face, though the dreamworld may not give them a choice. Pham’s debut, a Sapphic reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty,” explores mental health and asks a lot of readers as it seesaws between emotional confrontations, time jumps, and scenes where one character inhabits the memories of another, all of which demand intense engagement. Still, the ending is earned as well as positive.
Somberly beautiful. (content note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217113026
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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