A well-constructed coming-of-age novel that stands out in a crowded field of AI-focused literature.
Schafer presents a YA SF adventure about a gifted teenager and her rapidly developing artificial intelligence invention.
Houston high schoolers Liv Smithwick and her best friend, Lana Owens, define themselves proudly as “dorks,” and they chat with each other about every detail of their daily lives. Such chats are especially easy for them because they’re next-door neighbors, often shouting from window to window. Lana is the bookish daughter of a doctor, while Liv is a science and engineering whiz, and her latest invention, an AI bot named “Breck,” is her attempt to win a design contest whose prize is a summer internship with her idol, Jessica Anders, the head of the Department of Recreational Computation (DoRC). At first, the competition doesn’t go well—Breck even initially fails to pass his first test, which involves finding a way out of a box—but when Liv has a breakthrough and programs her bot to be the first of its kind to benefit from rest, his powers suddenly soar, and he begins winning successive levels of the contest in a video game–like progression. He does it so quickly that Anders herself takes notice, eager to see what Breck will become. Liv’s mother isn’t as keen on the project as Liv is, and soon the teen must deal with the extraordinary consequences of being Breck’s creator. Schafer’s novel, which shifts between Liv and Breck’s first-person perspectives and Jessica’s emails to her team, reads quickly and cleanly. The author has a knack for stating complex ideas in simple terms, such as certain pitfalls of AI: “I am trying to create someone who thinks like a human,” Liv opines, “but hasn’t experienced a huge chunk of what it is to be human. Homo sapiens spend a third of our time in sleep. Resting. Reflecting…Being creative.” There’s enough SF material to satisfy fans of that genre, and the characters, and Liv especially, are so well developed that it may have some crossover appeal.
A well-constructed coming-of-age novel that stands out in a crowded field of AI-focused literature.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2024
ISBN: 9798888245804
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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