With likable characters and nonstop action, this one will please readers who prefer adventure to ethical exploration.
A fast-paced sci-fi adventure complete with artificial intelligence, military intrigue, secret societies and a hint of romance.
Mila is shocked to learn—by falling out of a truck and discovering wires and high-tech gadgetry where blood and bones should be—that she is not a teenage girl, but a military weapon. Her mother is actually one of the scientists who created her; she then spirited her away when it was decided that Mila should be scrapped in favor of a newer model, as her too-genuine emotions proved an unacceptable vulnerability. When Mila and her mom are caught, Mila must face a series of tests to save her mother and herself from elimination. To survive, she’ll have to figure out how to make the most of her military hardware and training as well as her human emotions. While it definitely raises interesting questions about identity and memory, this offering depends much more on the fast-paced plot to keep readers engaged. It eschews for the most part the deep philosophical musings on what it means to be human that elevate otherwise similar titles such as Mary Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox (2009), for example, beyond thrills.
With likable characters and nonstop action, this one will please readers who prefer adventure to ethical exploration. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-209036-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre.
A dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself.
Juliette was torn from her home and thrown into an asylum by The Reestablishment, a militaristic regime in control since an environmental catastrophe left society in ruins. Juliette’s journal holds her tortured thoughts in an attempt to repress memories of the horrific act that landed her in a cell. Mysteriously, Juliette’s touch kills. After months of isolation, her captors suddenly give her a cellmate—Adam, a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Adam, it turns out, is immune to her deadly touch. Unfortunately, he’s a soldier under orders from Warner, a power-hungry 19-year-old. But Adam belongs to a resistance movement; he helps Juliette escape to their stronghold, where she finds that she’s not the only one with superhuman abilities. The ending falls flat as the plot devolves into comic-book territory. Fast-paced action scenes convey imminent danger vividly, but there’s little sense of a broader world here. Overreliance on metaphor to express Juliette’s jaw-dropping surprise wears thin: “My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps. My eyebrows are dangling from the ceiling.” For all of her independence and superpowers, Juliette never moves beyond her role as a pawn in someone else’s schemes.
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-208548-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
SEEN & HEARD
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