TREX

A 12-year-old fugitive starts middle school with a literally electrifying secret to keep.

After eight years of home schooling and sudden flights with his fanatically cautious mother, frustrated Trex jumps at the chance to be a “normal” kid for once—a tall order, as his whole body functions as a capacitor to power the experimental bioware in his brain, and touching anyone else or any metal item creates a dangerous electric spark. Worse yet, unbeknownst to Trex and (initially) his mom, the evil technocrat who financed the experiment has caught up with them at long last and, eager to get him back onto the operating table for further slicing and dicing, has hacked into his mental settings. Morrell really stacks the deck against her protagonist, but along with casting him with a winning mixture of decency and smarts, she deals him Mellie, a sharp young recluse who fancies herself a detective and, despite struggling with a profound anxiety disorder, proves a redoubtable ally through cascading crises that escalate from pranks into kidnappings, brutal attempted murders, last-tick rescues, and shocks both literal and in the form of revelations about Trex’s history, family, and even identity. Trex and the rest of the central cast are White; two siblings in the supporting cast are Black. The author offers reassurance to readers who identify with Mellie in an afterword.

Definitely buzzworthy.