Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz

In a future dystopian world, Kavali Kerwin, 15, is more than a little perplexed when she is suddenly dropped off at CropCamp by her foster Sheila.  CropCamp is run by the SayFree Gov for the purpose of teaching teens to grow organic vegetables while turning them into responsible (read conforming, obedient, gendered) adults.

Successfully completing the summer camp program gets a person certification, so that they can return to society for more education or take up Agriculture and not end up in Blight, the place where the gov puts defiants, defectives and other problem people, including expuls from camp.  Kavali is a bender, which means she could be boy or girl, gay or straight, leader or follower, human or lizard (she was found on Sheila's doorstep wrapped in a lizard t-shirt, and Sheila gave her the middle name Sauria and she is never with her small metal Komodo Dragon cum ttalisman).  Kavali quickly gets the nickname Lizard when her tent neighbor Sully overhears her talking to the Komodo.

On her first night in camp, Lizard sneaks out of her tent for some lizard time, but once out, she witnesses a bender boy from camp vaping - one second he's there, then he's gone in thin air - willfully vaporized.   But Lizard isn't the only witness, the camp director, Ms. Mischetti, a/k/a Machete, is also there, very visibly upset by the vaping.

Generally a loner, at camp Lizard becomes friends with Sully, a free spirit who believes she is headed straight to Blight, Rasta, a sweet innocent girl with a bit of a defiant streak in her, and Emmett, a boy who is very kind and loyal to Lizard,  Confused, maybe a little afraid, Lizard tries to keep out of trouble, so she can get her cert and leave at the end of August, but trouble seems trouble finds her.  To begin with, she is completely attracted to Sully, and Sully knows it, teasing and playing with Kavali, but any jazz contract is grounds for an expel, and samer jazz contact is worse.

But as the days pass, Lizard begins to question things that she sees around her, and slowly CropCamp becomes a scary, sinister place.  One bright spot for Lizard is when campers are given kickshaw, a drug designed to make them feel good and mellow.  Lizard looks forward to getting her kickshaw morsel every week, but Rasta keeps telling her not to take it and soon Kavali also begins questioning the drug use.

More questions come up, such as why the bender boy vaped, why Ms. Mischetti so interested in Lizard, is she trustworthy or a dangerous enemy, and what really happened to Sheila when she dropped Lizard off at camp and most important, who exactly is Kavali Kerwin?

This is the kind of novel that is so hard to review because you have to be so careful not to give too much away and yet, Pat Schmatz's world building is so well constructed that it is hard not to inadvertently let in spoiler slip in.  My apologies if that has happened.

Wisely, however, Schmatz has given the reader a very small part of Lizard's world, but CropCamp contains everything one needs to know about the wider world in microcosm.  There is no explanation about how things got to be the way they are and I don't think one is needed.  Everything you need to know you can figure out from the context, including the jargon, which is thankfully not hipsterish, but easy to figure out. I've used some here to give you a feel for it.

By giving Lizard Radio an other worldly setting, Schmatz is free to explore questions about identity in term of binaries, or really, she is asking why must things always be binary - boy/girl, gay/straight, male/female, leader/follower.? Why can't some people be bender, instead of samer?  It's a lot to think about.

I have been off dystopian fiction for a while because so much sounds the same to me, but then Lizard Radio can along and I remembered how good it can be when it is original and well done.  

 If you like intelligent dystopian fantasy, this is a book you are bound to enjoy.
   
This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley

The Giver by Lois Lowry

There is lots of hype around about The Giver now that it is being made into a movie.  But that is not why I decided to revisit and reread this classic novel about a utopian society by Lois Lowry.  No, indeed!  I reread it because tonight is World Book Night 2014 and tonight I am a Giver - a book giver, that is.  In fact, tonight, all over the world, thousands of people will become givers just like me and will be handing out free books people who can and who want to read them.  This is a very different world than the one in Lowry's book, where only The Giver may read books, or possess memory, or see color, or have feelings.

The climate controlled society that 11 year-old Jonas lives in had chosen to live in a state of sameness long ago.  Now, all pain and suffering, all feeling has be eliminated.  There may be no more wars, but neither is there any of the good things about life - loving families, emotions, memories, the warmth of the summer sun, the cold of the first snowfall.   The world is colored in varying shades of gray and black, and a stilted politeness rules the day.  All children have the same December birthday, no matter when they are born, and on that day, each year, they go to the Ceremony where they are promoted to the next year.  For Jonas, this year is his Ceremony of Twelve where he will be assigned his life's career.

Jonas is the last to called because his life assignment is very different from the others.  Jonas is to be the new Receiver of Memory.  After his training, Jonas will replace the old Receiver of Memory, now called the Giver [of Memory].  Not only does the Receiver hold the collective memory of the whole community, he may also read all the books that no one else can see, and he must use his wisdom to advise the Committee of Elders when they require it.

Everyday after school, Jonas goes to see the Giver and receives more and more memories each day.  Soon, he knows things like pain of sunburn, the joy of sleigh riding, and, because the memories are becoming more and more painful for the Giver, Jonas learns about things like pain, starvation, war.  Once the Giver transfers memory to Jonas, they are lost to him, so his pain is relieved even as Jonas's increases.

At the same time that this is happening, Jonas' father begins brings home a newchild at the end of his workday to try and help it learn to sleep through the night.  He is given a year to do this or the child will be released.  No one really knows what being released means, but they all believe it means going to a wonderful place.  Jonas volunteers to have the baby, called Gabriel, sleep in his room and when the baby fusses, Jonas soothes it with some of the pleasant memories he has been given.

The more utopian a society seems to be, the more dystopian it really is.  Sure enough, the more memories Jonas acquires, the more unfair he sees the kind of life the community has chosen.  When he expresses his feelings to the Giver, he discovers that the Giver feels the same way.  He also tells Jonas that ff the Receiver of Memory leaves the community, he tells Jonas, the memories will all revert back to the community.  Little by little, a plan is hatched, but things suddenly change when Jonas witnesses his father releasing a new born twin baby, because twins are not allowed in the community) and learns that Gabriel, the baby he has become attached to, will also be released.

Jonas must make a big decision now.

The Giver is such a thought provoking novel about this community living in a state of sameness.  At first, life feels pleasant and serene, everything is orderly, done on schedule, and there are no sudden ups and downs, no disappointments, no pain.  It does feel utopian.  And, it takes a while before you realize that you don't know last names, nor place names - that would point to too much individuality, not enough sameness.  And it begins to not feel so wonderful anymore.  Jonas learns about life, about pleasure and pain through memory, and because he is an intelligent, thoughtful boy, he quickly sees that the community has been cheated out of these things.

When I read The Giver to my 4th grade class in the Bronx, they were stunned by the sameness of the community and it sparked lots of interesting dialogue in the classroom.  I also detected that there was some palpable rooting for Jonas as we read until we finished the book and  even heard some kids taking about it and Jonas in the schoolyard, which didn't even happen when we read Harry Potter.

The Giver, which won the Newbery in 1994, is also a favorite Banned Book each year somewhere in the country, which in a country that values freedom of speech, seems to be the height of irony.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was purchased for my personal library

By the way, I am pleased to say that I will be giving out Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.  CNV is one of my favorite WWII novels, and also happens to be my favorite friendship story.

The Giver is book 1 of my 2014 Newbery Reading Challenge hosted by Smiling Shelves

Siege and Storm, Book Two of the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm, Book Two of the Grisha Trilogy starts shortly after the first book, Shadow and Bone ends.  Alina and Mal have been on the run since escaping the chaos of the Fold.  Alina is wracked with guilt over the Darkling having forced her to kill so many innocent people and destroy the towns they lived in, not to mention the ones she killed in the Fold escaping the Darkling.

After crossing the True Sea, and now, hiding the fact that she is the Sun Summoner, Alina and Mal are living quietly in a boarding house in Cofton, trying to come up with a plan to use her power and defeat the Darkling.  There had been rumors that the Darkling had survived what happened in the Fold, and these turn out to be true.  Returning to heir room one day, Alina and Mal are meet by the Darkling.  And as Alina quickly learns, the Darkling has a terrible new power - the ability to create a shadow creature, almost like the Volcra from the Fold, but with a more human shape and it does not fear light.

Slipping into unconsciousness after a shadow creature bits her shoulder, Alina finds herself held captive, away from Mal, on a ship crossing the True Sea to return to Ravka.  The captain of the ship, Sturmhond, seems to be nothing more than a very charming mercenary doing the Darklings bidding in exchange for a nice sum of money, and turning a cold eye on the things that are happening on his boat. But when he stops the Darkling from hurting Alina, she hopes that maybe she will have an ally.  Unfortunately, Sturmhond quickly dashes that hope.

But Alina and Mal are in for some real surprises in Siege and Storm.  And so it the reader.

Alina has seen what happened to the Darkling in his thirst for power, but will that be a lesson she remembers in her quest to destroy him and the Fold he created?  The Darkling forced her to wear the first amplifier to strengthen her power.  One amplifier is usually all a Grisha can handle, but Alina isn't just any Grisha, she is the one and only Sun Summoner.  Will she be forced to wear more by the Darkling or choose to do so herself?  Is Alina the saint that the people think she is or is she heading down the dame power path as the Darkling?

A lot goes on in Siege and Storm.  New, important characters are introduced, more motives are revealed.  Sturmhond is kind of a fun guy, cocky, confident and a little on the hyperactive side.  He isn't a loved foil for Mal as far as Alina is concerned, at least not yet.  But quite frankly, Mal has become kind of a drag, jealous and possessive in a most unattractive way.

The Darkling isn't in this volume as much as he was in Shadow and Bone, which made for not a lot of action.  Too bad, because despite this being a good book, it has some second book slump going in in the mid part of the story.  So slumpy, I put it down for a few days.  I also felt that Alina often sounded more like a spoiled brat than a former orphan who discovered she has a wonderful power that can be used to help the people of Ravka.

I am sorry to say that I do not think this is a good stand alone novel.  You need to have read the first book to appreciate this one.  Still, if you like Shadow and Bone, you will most likely like Siege and Storm.  And all in all, I would still recommend this trilogy and I am looking forward to reading the third and final (?) volume of the Grisha saga.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

This is book 4 of my 2013 YA/MG Fantasy Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Cellar
This is book 2 of my 2013 Dystopia Reading Challenge hosted by Blog of Erised

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, illustrated by Julian Crouch

I took Maggot Moon with me to read on a long boring trip and I don't think the time ever flew by like it did this time.  To say that I was pulled into this 1950s dystopian England and the story of the severely dyslexic Standish Treadwell, 15, is an understatement.  I was mesmerized.

England is ruled by the cruel, totalitarian Nazi-like regime called the Motherland.  The country is zoned and Zone Seven is pretty much the end of the line, a place to put those who need to be punished.  Standish lives there with his grandfather now that his parents have simply disappeared, gone to the 'maggot farm' (killed) as far as Standish is concerned.  His father was headmaster at his school and was against Motherland's rule but basically tried to maintain a neutral stance.  His mother, a teacher at his school, was more rebellious and refused to toe the Motherland's line.

The school in Zone Seven is not a place you want to draw attention to yourself.  But Standish does, he can't help it: he was born with one blue eye and one brown eye and is extremely dyslexic, and since he can't read or write, he is the brunt of cruel, violent bullying by students and teachers at school.  His only escape from all this is his imagination.

But all that changes for Standish when Hector Lush and his parents arrive in Zone Seven and start living in Standish's parent's old house.  The two boys soon become best friends, and when Hector stands up to the teachers who delighted in bullying Standish, Standish is finally left alone by everyone.

After Standish tells Hector about his imaginary planet Juniper, the boys make plans for a space trip there, even building a papier-maché spacecraft for this mission.  At the same time, Motherland is making plans to send a spaceship to the moon with three astronauts, to declare the moon a Motherland territory and solidify its place as the military leader of the world.

Things are going as well as they can in Zone Seven until one day, Hector and his family disappear.  Of course, life at school goes back to being pretty lousy for Standish.  And soon he discovers that his Gramps isn't who he thought he was - Gramps has some important secrets.  But Standish has a few secrets of his own, as well - and one of them is that he know something about the Motherland's moon landing that could bring the whole regime down in front of the entire world.

So Standish makes a plan...

Maggot Moon is quite simply an edgy, dystopian novel but one of the best I have read in a long time.  It is narrated in the first person by Standish, who has a refreshingly powerful, honest voice.  In a short novel with short chapters, Standish's is a compelling story about repression, friendship, rebellion and conspiracy.  Being deemed stupid at school because of dyslexia does give Standish a certain kind of freedom to experience and explore his inner and outer world, which a actually how his discovers the secret of the moon landing.

The rule of the Motherland has been compared to that of the Nazis.  And it does indeed have similarities.  The wall surrounding Zone Seven is very much like the ghettos the Nazis built to contain Jews before they too disappeared and were never heard from again.  The Soldier/police, called Greenflies, resemble the SS and the man in the trench coat who tails Standish throughout is very much like a Gestapo agent.  And of course, the desire of the Motherland for world supremacy resembles Hitler's wish for his Fatherland to dominate the world.  And yet, despite these similarities, Maggot Mood has a fresh, inventive feel all its own.

The black and white illustrations of maggots, rats and other vermin in the corners of the pages throughout the book, all done by Julian Crouch add to the bleak starkness of Standish's world.

This book is recommended for readers 14+
This book was borrowed from a friend

A downloadable discussion guide for Maggot Moon is available from Candlewick Press

This is book 3 of my 2013 YA/MG Fantasy Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Cellar
This is book 1 of my 2013 2013 Dystopian Reading Challenge hosted by Book of Erisred

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent takes place in a futuristic post-apocalyptic now dystopian Chicago.  It is a world divided into five factions and the member of each faction are supposed to be the embodiment of that factions central virtue.  Those in Abnegation value selflessness; in Dauntless, it is bravery;  for Erudite, it is intelligence; Candor values honesty and Amity embodies peacefulness.  At 16, children are give an aptitude test to determine which value they are personally disposed to.  And after getting the results, they face a Choosing Day ceremony and pick the faction they believe they will best fit into.

Beatrice Prior, 16, the book's narrator, was born into Abnegation, but has always known that she did not belong there, that a life of absolute selflessness would be impossible for her.  So it is not surprise that after her aptitude test, sh is told she is Divergent, meaning that she does not fit into a particular faction.  And at the Choosing Day ceremony, Beatrice picks Dauntless as her faction and Tris as her new name.

Being in Dauntless isn't easy.  First, there are the physical feats to accomplish, like jumping onto a moving train, or jumping from the roof of a tall building.  And it is especially hard when you have to keep it a secret that you are Divergent.  They truly believed in Faction before Blood and Tris is warned that past Divergents ended up dead in Dauntless.  But Tris turns out to be somewhat of a daredevil, even if some of her Abnegation traits sometimes surface.  And she makes friends with other Dauntless initiates.

There are only 10 spots open in Dauntless to the more than  20 initiates who have chosen it, and everyone figures the Dauntless-born initiates have an edge.  And failing to be initiated into a faction means your are factionless, which is very much like being homeless.  But Tris isn't the type to back away from danger and soon she is gaining ground over other initiates.  And gaining enemies!

I had heard Divergent compared to The Hunger Games so much, that I was hesitant to read it.  And while there are indeed similarities, I thought that there were enough differences to make it a worthwhile book to read.

I thought that Tris, as the main protagonist and narrator, was a well thought out character, strong and independent, in a world that seems to value conformity.  She is brave, sometimes to a fault, but in choosing Dauntless, she never fully gives up her Abnegation traits of caring about her fellow human beings.  And of course, even as she is in a fight for her place in Dauntless society, there is a love interest and his (nick)name  is Four and there is a definite reason they are attracted to one another, but to talk about that would be a *spoiler* and some parts of this story are too good to spoil.

I also thought that Roth's world building was pretty good.  She mentions enough of Chicago's landmarks that you can more or less figure out where the characters are.  And ironically, I found I never wondered where the rest of the world was and how they were governed, a experience I also had reading The Hunger Games.  It was all so nicely self-contained.

But the virtues are what really caught my attention.  The world of Divergent  had been set up in faction ever since the Great Peace, in an attempt to prevent future wars that were based on mankind's inclination towards evil.  So each faction was formed by people who blamed certain qualities or vices in man for the "world's disarray." (pg 43)  For example, Abnegation was formed by those who blamed selfishness.  What's interesting about virtues and vices is that they are just two sides to the same coin and seeing how they play out in Divergent.

This was the first dystopian novel I have read with the same enthusiasm I felt when I read The Hunger Games.  And now I really can't wait to read Insurgent.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was purchased for my personal library.

HarperCollins offers a very useful discussion guide to readers of Divergent that can be found here

The Alchemy of Forever (Incarnation #1) by Avery Williams

From the Publisher:
Seraphina's first love made her immortal...her second might get her killed...
After spending six hundred years on earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches, but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to swap bodies with other humans, jumping from one vessel to the next, taking the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year-old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting--and falls for the human boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care for in great danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?

My Thoughts:
The Alchemy of Forever begins in 1349.  Young Serphina Ames is attending a party with her parents.  Going outside for some fresh air, she runs into Cyrus, the apothecary's son.  While talking to Cyrus, the pair are accosted by robbers.  Cyrus manages to kill them, but not before Sera is fatally stabbed.  Before she actually dies, Cyrus saves her by giving her an alchemical mixture that gives her immortality - but in another person's body.

Fast forward to present day San Francisco.

Seraphina has been living for 600 yeas as an incarnate, which means she retains her own soul, but must replace the body she lives in every 10 years. Unfortunately, her new body means the death of someone else.  But now she has decided it is time to die herself.  Sera, desperately in need of a new body, is tired of living under Cyrus's possessive control, despite her affection for her best friend Charlotte, also an incarnate. So, she takes the alchemy book Cyrus has kept over the ages and runs away.

But just as Sera is ready to carry out her suicide, she hears a car accident.  She pulled out a fatally injured, very pretty teenage girl and tries to give her CPR, but the girl is dying and the pull of a new body is too great for Sera and before she knows it, she has become the body of 16 year old Kailey Morgan.

Away from the familiar incarnates that are part of Cyrus's circle, Sera slowly begins to learn about Kailey, her family, her friends, and her enemies.  A few people notice changes in her, but don't really question them too much.  And Sera as Kailey feels she is somewhat safe from Cyrus's grasp and still plans to carry out her suicide, for herself and for Kailey's parents who don't know their real daughter is dead.

I didn't think I would really like The Alchemy of Forever, but I found it was an easy, fast and entertaining book and it was a surprisingly well-written, well-plotted book.  I did have trouble with the concept that an incarnate must take another's life in order to sustain themself, even though it was justified by only using the bodies of people about to die anyway.  Somehow, that part still didn't work for me, especially since once the exchange of souls happened, the "donor" body disintegrated into dust.

Throughout the novel, we only experience Sera in her original body and Kailey's, but personality-wise, she remains the same.  And that is what her friends question.  First, Kailey forbade her friends to date her brother, despite his good looks and nice personality.  And Noah - the boy interest in the story - had been forbidden by Kailey to be seen with her in school, but around the neighborhood it was OK.  And it was OK for him to drive Kailey and her brother to school everyday - weird, especially since Noah clearly has a major crush on Kailey.  But Sera likes him and suddenly all of Kailey's rules no longer matter.

All this plays out partially because Sera believes she is really safe from Cyrus.  Or is she? Is Cyrus so clever that he can trace her through the events that led her to Kailey's life?

The Alchemy of Forever has a few loose ends that bothered me.  What happened to the girl named Taryn who Sera convinced not to commit suicide on the same night she had planned it herself?  And was Taryn the person Sera saw when she exchanged bodies with Kailey?  What happened to Cyrus's alchemical book?

I know this is a the first book in a planned series and these questions might be answered in the future, but it left too much hanging, and yet, the end of the story was really very predictable (no, I am giving away nothing here.)

If you like paranormal romance/adventure, you will surely like The Alchemy of Forever.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was obtained from the publisher.

Starters by Lissa Price

From the publisher:

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty.  She and her little brother, Tyler, are on the run living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie.  Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders - seniors who want to be young again.  Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor.  But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's son.  It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party - and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined...

My Thoughts:
I have to be honest and say that at first I didn't think I was going to like Starters, but actually I was pulled into the story quickly and stayed there until I was finished with it.

The story is set in Los Angeles, in a not terribly distant future.  It is a bi-polar world, populated by the young and generally very poor called Starters, and the old, very rich called Enders.  It is a world without a median.  Oddly enough, though, there are some rich Starters who have been claimed by their wealthy Ender relatives, but there seems to be no poor Enders.  Squatters and renegades are unclaimed minors, kids who have no elderly relatives to claim them and, if caught by Ender marshals, are put into institutions, which by that very name implies horrible living and working conditions.

Callie has been responsible for her weak sickly brother Tyler since their mother died in the Spore War and her father was taken away to die from the same thing.  But life on the streets and on the run from Marshals and renegades is taking it toll on Tyler.  Callie, an attractive teen under all the dirt and grime of living as a squatter, decides that letting Prime Destinations rent her body to an Ender for a while will earn her enough money to buy a house and food to help her brother regain his health.

So Callie has the neurochip needed for the rental implanted in her head.  Her body is cleaned up and manicured to look perfect and then she is put into an induced coma.  She shouldn't wake up for a month while her body is being used, but one night she suddenly finds herself at a nightclub where rich teens and Enders in teen rentals go to party.

Apparently, something is wrong with her chip.

Turns out, Helena, the Ender renting Callie, wants more from her body than just partying like a 16 year old.  Helena's 16 year old granddaughter Emma has gone missing and Helena believes that Prime Destinations is the reason why.  Now, she wants to find out what happened to Emma and expose a sinister plan that Prime Destinations has for it youthful rentees.

Will Callie help Helena or go to Prime Destinations and tell them about the defective chip?

In a world of many dystopian, apocalyptic novels, I think that Price has actually come up with a rather unique premise in Starters.  It is told completely from Callie's point of view, which is pretty clever considering that part of the time she is still in the induced coma - and yet it works.

Price has created a set of other interesting characters as well.  We don't learn much about Michael, other than he is Callie's trusted friend and an artist.  Callie meets Blake Harrison, grandson of Senator Harrison, at a nightclub, and although she falls for him, he seems too good to be true.  But is he?  Actually, in this novel, you may end up asking yourself over and over if people are who they appear to be.  After all, this is a novel about appearances and I liked that, it kept me guessing.

I did find some Hunger Games elements in the novel.  Michael reminded me of Katniss's friend Gale - there but we never get to really know him.  The body makeover is pretty much kin to the makeovers the Tributes receive.  And a few more similarities, but these don't detract from the novel's originality one bit.

I personally found the idea of elderly people, and in this novel they can live to be as old as 200 years, gallivanting about in the bodies of teens to be really creepy.   But it makes for a great novel.   And yet, how many over 60s would, in today's world, pay big bucks to be young again?  More than you might think, I would guess.

I also found that lack of humanity towards the unclaimed minors by the Enders somewhat hard to take - all that money and not giving a damn about those kids - that's scary.  Imagine if all the programs to help disadvantaged people were suddenly shut down now - who would help them?

Starters is an exciting, fast-paced, well-written debut novel for Lissa Price and it is the first in a projected series about Callie.  I, for one, am really looking forward to the next book.

This book is recommended for readers 12+
I received this book from the publisher.