Miriam and Stuart, both 14, are thrilled and honored to be chosen to test the top secret, ultimate new virtual reality game, New World. But the game's reality proves to be not all virtual; they realize that something is terribly wrong. Someone, somehow, has broken into the game and has incorporated the pair's deepest, most secret fears—Stuart's arachnophobia and Miriam's recurring, nearly incapacitating childhood nightmare—into the structure of the ``trials.'' Their tormentor seems to be trying to drive them to madness—or beyond. Who is it? How does the hacker know their special weaknesses? Cross (The Great American Elephant Chase, 1993, etc.) rarely fails to write effective, involving novels using topics that are current and controversial, and this book is no exception. Many questions have been raised by the explosion of cybertechnology and its possible effects on the young; Cross delivers a fast-paced message that techies and Luddites alike will love. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-8234-1166-4
Page Count: 171
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
In many ways Jackie Monterey, 13, is a typical teenager. His parents are a great embarrassment to him; he’s having a boring and frustrating summer; and his best friends don’t really understand him. One thing does differentiate Jackie from his peers, though—Jackie plans to write the Great American Novel over the summer between 8th and 9th grades. After all, Jackie did invest in a book called “Get Rich Quick! Write a Bestseller in Less Than a Year.” The only trouble is that Jackie can’t get past his first sentence. He also can’t decide on the genre of his groundbreaking novel—will he get rich quick by writing a hard-boiled detective story, sci-fi, a gritty western, or an “Indiana Jones”-style adventure story? During his long bouts of writer’s block, Jackie engages in normal adolescent activities—he swims on a team at the local swim club, hangs out with his pals, and gets dumped by a beautiful but unfeeling girl with whom he has absolutely nothing in common. Jackie isn’t an untalented writer, but he lacks direction and focus and is too stubborn to take any advice or help from anyone. To make things even worse, he has a problem sticking with things. Jackie blames everyone around him for his lack of progress—his parents constantly interrupt him and don’t take his “work” seriously and his friends distract him with juvenile antics. But as the summer progresses Jackie realizes that sometimes you do need to listen to other, perhaps even wiser, people. While this novel’s premise is promising, the elements don’t quite gel—Jackie’s friends, while meant to be funny and quirky, are too often merely annoying and Jackie just misses being charming. Despite the fact that many of the jokes and comic situations are belabored and forced, there are several funny scenes and Jackie does turn out to be an endearing character. Not a “must have” book, but one with a certain amount of appeal for its age group. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8126-2738-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
Twenty-eight years after the harrowing events in A Darker Magic (1987), evil rises again in the town of Caledon. To Emily (who still has nightmares about last time) and her young niece Alice the menace is palpable, centering on a neglected playground and on the devil that's part of an antique set of Punch-and-Judy puppets. Bedard's lean, graceful prose is readable, but his efforts to build suspense seem labored—macabre descriptions of a relentless succession of small events and details, scenes from a typically violent Punch-and-Judy script interspersed between chapters, a vague supernatural attack on Alice's little sister. After all the buildup, the climactic battle is won with disappointing ease: Alice and Emily sneak into the old library where the puppets are kept, break through a weak web of protective illusion, and smash the oddly helpless devil. Even readers who admire Bedard's command of language are likely to be let down by how briefly the danger assumes material form. Frequent references to the first book are tempting, but it's only tangentially relevant to the one at hand. The better-defined horrors in Mahy's Changeover and Westwood's He Came From The Shadows create more vivid impressions. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-689-31827-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
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