An engaging entry in this ongoing, playfully puzzling saga.
This third installment of DiBarone’s YA series finds a teenage genius struggling with reality while trying to protect Earth from a viral threat.
The first day of Matty Weber’s junior year at a Scotsborough, California high school is peculiar, to say the least. When lunchtime rolls around, he’s eating alone in the cafeteria. As Matty walks around the school, there’s not a student in sight. He eventually runs into his best friend, Gabriel Mason, and Gabriel’s brand-new girlfriend, Stephanie, and learns that a morning announcement has declared school canceled for a month; apparently, there’s a pandemic underway. A maybe-sentient “sort of robot” (which Matty has previously interacted with) runs a pandemic simulation at the school, but Matty inexplicably doesn’t see the same simulated images that Gabriel does. He suspects someone is altering his perceptions; sure enough, he suddenly wakes up in a room with no idea of how he got there. He’s now the “new kid” at the Stanford University Graduate School for Advanced Study, set to work on finding a vaccine for Earth’s deadly new virus. Matty earns graduate degrees in virology in record time and collects samples around the world, from Utah to Turkey to India. The situation somehow involves his biological father, his mother, and his stepfather, all of whom are estranged from each other in different ways. They prize his brilliant mind, but is it only because of the virus? Or are they harboring a secret agenda? Matty is understandably confused and often can’t be sure if he’s taking part in reality or if all of the weird developments happening around him are merely a dream.
As in preceding installments of the series, this novel thrives on abstruseness. Readers will be as perplexed as Matty perpetually is as he intermittently pops into new scenes and new settings. Other characters notice this, too: “But how?” Gabriel wonders, upon realizing he and Matty are in Turkey. “A moment before, we were somewhere in Utah, and minutes before that, I was in Scotsbourgh...” Matty doubts his reality so frequently that readers may continue to do so in the rare moments when he doesn’t question anything. As always, Matty displays a natural charm, delivering scientific explanations or musings that show no sign of conceitedness or condescension. He’s very relatable; a teen sometimes caught in the middle of feuding parents, he’s quick to tears, and his nerves sometimes leave him with sweaty, stinky armpits. In the same vein, this oft-baffling narrative world isn’t so unfamiliar, including the varied responses people have to the pandemic. DiBarone skillfully links this novel with the earlier installments, which deepens the mystery of what Matty is experiencing as people hide things, form top-secret plans, and run ambiguous “projects” or “operations.” The final act takes a sharp turn, sprinkling SF and paranormal elements into the narrative. Frustratingly, this offers little in the way of clarification, and it’s hardly surprising that yet another sequel waits in the wings. An engaging entry in this ongoing, playfully puzzling saga.Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781665739849
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2023
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
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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