A YA adventure with ethereal prose and appealing characters.
In Dunn’s YA sci-fi debut, set in a world where people can see glimpses of future events, one teenager sees a vision of herself killing her little sister.
As the story opens, Callie is a day shy of 17, the age when everyone in the nation of North Amerie receives a memory from their future selves. Most expect to see what career path they’ve taken, but Callie witnesses something disturbing: she walks into what appears to be a hospital room and stabs her 6-year-old sis Jessa in the heart with a syringe. Predicted crimes like these usually lead to arrest, but a sympathetic guard at the Future Memory Agency lets Callie escape. Callie thinks that Jessa’s psychic ability is the reason that she’s eventually headed for a hospital, so she struggles to keep her future memory a secret from both FuMA and the psychic-hunting Technology Research Agency. However, Callie hopes that she can somehow alter her future. There’s a whirlwind of plot in this novel: an imprisoned Callie later tries to stop FuMA from forcibly retrieving her future memory, and she eventually teams with the Underground, a group of people with psychic abilities who are hiding from TechRA. There’s also an abundance of mystery: Jessa is a precognitive but may also be capable of much more, and a seedy FuMA doctor, Bellows, claims to have known Callie’s father, who left her when she was young. Romance comes in the form of Callie’s enigmatic schoolmate Logan, who inexplicably ended his friendship with her five years ago. Their love, however, may be doomed from the start, as Logan is the Underground’s contact in Eden City, which Callie is avoiding in order to steer clear of Jessa. However, that doesn’t impede many moments of the couple kissing or swoon-worthy lines such as, “I don’t think I’ll ever be any good at leaving Logan.” Hints of FuMA’s ultimate goal amp up the story’s tension considerably, as the obviously deceitful agency may be working toward a significantly grimmer future. Dunn leaves numerous questions unanswered, particularly the origins of future memory, which could potentially be explored in future books.
A YA adventure with ethereal prose and appealing characters.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63375-238-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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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