Ultimately, a pretty standard mad-scientist thriller.
Seventeen-year-old Sophie’s mother works as a scientist on a secret island, so when the girl gets an emergency email, she rushes to join her.
However, when she gets to Guam from the mainland U.S., no one there wants to fly Sophie to Skin Island, saying it’s too dangerous. Finally, Sophie finds Jim, her childhood friend from when her family lived on Guam. When they land on Skin Island, they discover that the runway has been sabotaged, and Jim’s plane is wrecked. While Jim tries to salvage his plane, Sophie is ushered to the lab, where she finds an unconscious girl who looks exactly like her. Knocked out, she awakens to discover she’s been mistaken for Lux, a Vitro—a chip-implanted human grown from unneeded embryos and programmed to obey whomever she sees when she first awakes at age 17. Sophie plays along to learn more. When Jim arrives at the facility to retrieve Sophie, complications arise. Thereafter, the story becomes a shoot’em-up chase thriller, with poor Jim surviving at least two too many near-death experiences. Narrative perspective alternates among Sophie, Jim and Lux, following two plotlines until events converge. Khoury keeps the action moving with plenty of escapes and re-captures, gunfights and physical battles. If somewhat overlong and melodramatic, it’s rarely dull, though overt moralizing mars the delivery.
Ultimately, a pretty standard mad-scientist thriller. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59514-605-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and...
A deliciously creepy page-turning gem from first-time writer and illustrator Brosgol finds brooding teenager Anya trying to escape the past—both her own and the ghost haunting her.
Anya feels out of place at her preppy private school; embarrassed by her Russian heritage, she has worked hard to lose her accent and to look more like everyone else. After a particularly frustrating morning at the bus stop, Anya storms off, only to accidentally fall down a well. Down in the dark hole, she meets Emily, a ghost who claims to be a murder victim trapped down in the dank abyss for 90 years. With Emily’s help, Anya manages to escape, though once free, she learns that Emily has traveled out with her. At first, Emily seems like the perfect friend; however, once her motives become clear, Anya learns that “perfect” may only be an illusion. A moodily atmospheric spectrum of grays washes over the clean, tidy panels, setting a distinct stage before the first words appear. Brosgol’s tight storytelling invokes the chilling feeling of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002), though for a decidedly older set.
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and outward appearance. (Graphic supernatural fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-552-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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