WEIRD KID

A middle school misfit finds his people.

Jake Wind isn’t exactly an ordinary 12-year-old. For one thing, his dad’s a proctologist. For another, Jake isn’t actually human. Jake is a shape-shifting pile of goo, one discovered by his parents late one night and brought up as a human in Cedar Creek View, Arizona. As Jake enters middle school with his ever changing body, odd things start happening around town. Sinkholes open up everywhere, people behave strangely, and Jake is the only person in town who can hear a slight, constant hum. With the help of new pal Agnes Oakes, Jake sets off to discover the source of all these oddities, hoping to find some answers. Jake and Agnes make for compelling protagonists, fully shaded with character, drive, and an engaging relationship. The author structures the plot adeptly, spinning organically from each point of conflict to create a brisk and propulsive read. Nothing is too drawn out, nor are readers ever ahead of Jake and Agnes when it comes to discovering the strange source of Cedar Creek View’s abnormalities. The result is an exciting and intriguing twist on science-fiction tropes often overcooked by lesser hands. Jake’s parents are both of Dutch and Indonesian heritage, and when in human form, Jake presumably resembles them; Agnes is White.

A standout SF adventure.