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
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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