A teen melodrama without sufficient depth.
Just as former teen lovers reconnect, a natural disaster rips them apart.
Five months after torching her relationship with Alfie Thanasis; running away from her parents, who divorced following a scandal; and giving up her spot at Sarah Lawrence College, 18-year-old Mia Clementine is crashing in her best friend Simi’s college dorm room in San Francisco and looking for a job. She runs into Alfie in a coffee shop with another girl and flees—but later phones him only to have the call disconnect as a massive earthquake rolls through the city. Mia, initially joined by Simi, embarks on an epic quest through the rubble to find Alfie. As Mia meets people who influence both her physical and spiritual journeys, the trip starts to take on a mythic dimension, while, in alternating chapters, Alfie unspools the tangled story of their relationship. Although religious faith is an important part of the story, both Mia’s parents’ Evangelical Christianity and Alfie’s parents’ Greek Orthodoxy are treated one-dimensionally. It’s initially hard to invest in Mia despite Simi’s and Alfie’s affection for her, so her gradual transformation into a more evolved and aware person isn’t as believable and doesn’t have the emotional impact it should. The tear-jerker ending adds to the overall sense that this is a book to elicit emotion rather than evoke it. Mia and Alfie are White; Simi is a Punjabi Sikh American, and supporting characters reflect the diversity of the setting.
A teen melodrama without sufficient depth. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9781665927123
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
Fast-moving and intriguing though inconsistent on multiple fronts.
Kids endure rigorous competition aboard a spaceship.
When Babel Communications invites 10 teens to participate in “the most serious space exploration known to mankind,” Emmett signs on. Surely it’s the jackpot: they’ll each receive $50,000 every month for life, and Emmett’s mother will get a kidney transplant, otherwise impossible for poor people. They head through space toward the planet Eden, where they’ll mine a substance called nyxia, “the new black gold.” En route, the corporation forces them into brutal competition with one another—fighting, running through violent virtual reality racecourses, and manipulating nyxia, which can become almost anything. It even forms language-translating facemasks, allowing Emmett, a black boy from Detroit, to communicate with competitors from other countries. Emmett's initial understanding of his own blackness may throw readers off, but a black protagonist in outer space is welcome. Awkward moments in the smattering of black vernacular are rare. Textual descriptions can be scanty; however, copious action and a reality TV atmosphere (the scoreboard shows regularly) make the pace flow. Emmett’s first-person voice is immediate and innocent: he realizes that Babel’s ruthless and coldblooded but doesn’t apply that to his understanding of what’s really going on. Readers will guess more than he does, though most confirmation waits for the next installment—this ends on a cliffhanger.
Fast-moving and intriguing though inconsistent on multiple fronts. (Science fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-55679-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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