By Shaun David Hutchinson
Simon Pulse, 2018. 438 pgs. Young Adult
Elena is the first scientifically confirmed virgin birth, and ever since she can remember she has been able to hear the voices of inanimate objects speaking to her. One day her crush, Freddie, is shot in a random act of violence, and the Starbucks siren tells Elena to heal her. She does, but then the shooter disappears in a beam of light and Elena is just as confused as everyone else. The voices tell Elena to heal more people, but doing so results in more disappearances, while not doing so results in mass disasters. Elena must decide to listen to the voices or not, but whatever she chooses the apocalypse has started.
The best part of this book is the characters. Elena and her friends are wonderfully written and easy to connect with. The ethnic and sexual diversity gives the characters perspectives that are appearing more often in young adult literature, allowing more young people to find protagonists like them. While the characters shined, the plot took a backseat. The premise of the story is interesting, but the execution felt a little overly contrived and kept pulling me out of the story. Though not perfect, this is a book I could recommend to people who like magical realism and care more about characterization than plot.
ACS
No comments:
Post a Comment