A sometimes overwrought but richly imagined, entertaining YA dystopian fable.
A teen’s battles with her mom reveal the dark soul of a genetic apartheid state in this fraught SF saga.
In the Genome Age circa 2077 the world runs on genetically modified organic technology, including “genmod” bamboo cars powered by biofuels, genmod moss carpets, and lights made of genmod phosphorescent organisms. Society is similarly fixated on genetics: There’s an elite group called IntelliGenes, engineered to be scientists or artists; a servant class of genetically unmodified Real Intelligence people; and an underworld of Miscreations, victims of genetic experiments gone wrong. Miscreations are telepathic but also often violently insane, which gets them relegated to slums on the margins of Genetico City. Fifteen-year-old Natalia Martyn faces a typical IntelliGene conundrum: Should she follow her heart and be a musical genius, or be a scientific genius as her mother, Elyssia, an icy, domineering geneticist at Genetico corporation, demands? Natalia’s vacillation triggers an intrusive investigation that gets Elyssia arrested and unearths secrets about her long-dead father and hidden Miscreation background. She weathers bullying at school—“Miscreation scum!”—aided by her younger twin sisters, their wisecracking (and safecracking) “mackawcatoo” bird, her gal-pal Leilani, and love-struck physics geek Simon, whom Natalia friend zones while gravitating toward fickle heartthrob Max and his genmod snakeskin leather jacket. This first installment of Yu’s Genetico Chronicles series feels like a high school version of Gattacaset in an eco-aware society that Greta Thunberg would love. The narrative is overreliant on manufactured crises that wouldn’t arise if characters just explained things to each other instead of keeping secrets. These devices lend heightened drama to ordinary teen travails: boy problems; the pressure to get into good schools; above all, furious mother-daughter fights. Yu’s limpid prose compensates for plot contrivances, ably conveying characters’ psyches with sensitivity and pathos. (“My mother must be very lonely if she prefers an unresponsive body to living, walking, talking people for company. A guilty twang plucks at me. Maybe I should have made more effort to be a daughter to her.”) Natalia is a tough, appealing hero as she fights prejudice and mysterious parental decrees.
A sometimes overwrought but richly imagined, entertaining YA dystopian fable.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-645-24882-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Facet Media
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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