A not-quite-satisfying but still heady trip into a creepy, surreal virtual world.
A young woman must free those trapped in a simulation aboard a failing spaceship before it’s too late.
It’s been decades since Earth was devastated by nuclear war. A lottery granted a group of San Francisco teens the chance to board a billionaire’s spaceship and remain in stasis until the Earth is ready for their return. But something has gone wrong with Paracosm, the simulation meant to provide a safe haven for their minds. The ship’s systems are failing, food is running out, and if its inhabitants don’t awaken, returning home might not be an option. Seventeen-year-old Lake is able to dip in and out of the sim without losing herself, and when she rescues a boy named Taren, he insists on helping—but the sim, and some within it, has other ideas. The landscape is shot through with a pervasive sense of dread that follows Lake and Taren as they navigate the often dangerous corners of the Paracosm. However, the inevitable twist offers little surprise, and the narrative grows fuzzy toward the end. Still, Peevyhouse (The Echo Room, 2018, etc.) deftly explores the grief that Lake and Taren carry for their home planet and the loved ones they left behind, which inevitably shapes their virtual world. Most characters are white, but some diversity is suggested through names of secondary characters.
A not-quite-satisfying but still heady trip into a creepy, surreal virtual world. (Science fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7653-9942-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor Teen
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
Both entertaining and well-written; demands and holds readers’ attention.
A duology opener that revisits the world of Divergent (2011).
Beatrice “Tris” Prior is Divergent. But before she can select Dauntless, her Choosing Ceremony is interrupted by a group of factionless rebels, and her good friend is killed. Amid the chaos, Tris sees Evelyn, the wife of Abnegation leader Marcus Eaton—but Evelyn supposedly died years ago. And, shockingly, she’s an Amity woman who’s holding a gun. Tris doesn’t tell anyone, even her father, when he later questions her. Her brother, Caleb, chooses Erudite—the faction that’s most critical toward the Abnegation and their practices—and Tris feels pressured to stay in Abnegation. But when her father tries to erase her memories, she knows she’s unsafe. Tris’ mother helps her escape to the factionless, where Tris meets Four, a Dauntless boy. Their relationship shows her that she was right to leave Abnegation—and that maybe the rebels are correct to want the death of the faction system. As Tris becomes friends with the other “faction failures,” she realizes that no faction is as it seems, and that power is a corrupting influence they can’t escape. This exciting work revisits beloved characters, offering a new understanding of them and of what happens when we stand up and ask questions. Returning fans and those new to this world will appreciate the witty banter, slow-burn romance, and heartache stemming from betrayal and complicated familial love. The leads are cued white.
Both entertaining and well-written; demands and holds readers’ attention. (Dystopian. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9780063462595
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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