TELL ME WHO

Two girls discover that divining the future is not all it’s cracked up to be, in this flimsy tale set in the land of middle school. Banished to the basement during the after-school hours by her dreadful stepmother-to-be, Molly and her best friend stumble upon a bizarre machine that seems to predict the prospective spouse of each person whose name is entered into it. This at once gives the girls power over their sixth-grade peers and creates some ethical dilemmas. While the core of this fantastical story poses an interesting question about the nature of free will versus fate, its encapsulation in a formulaic melodrama does not provide much of an opportunity for the characters to explore it. Molly is likable enough, but she is often almost obscured by her many issues. Finally, the remarkably unfeasible ending and the frustrating lack of explanation as to why Molly is the only one who is able to make the “Who-Meter” work render the novel unsatisfying. (Fantasy. 9-13)