Reviews

Gr 6-10-Jared, 16, eagerly anticipates summer vacation at the family seaside compound, where he will see Annelise, for whom he has more than cousinly feelings. But before he joins his extended family, he is pitched into a swamp and covered with industrial waste, thanks to the failure of his bike brakes. At dinner, he is nearly overwhelmed by the storm of intuitive feelings and words that force themselves into his brain. Eventually he understands that his toxic dip has made him a mind reader, and that his convivial family isn't really so happy. Everyone is afraid of angering his wizened grandmother and thereby losing an inheritance. Worst of all, charming Annelise is actually a narcissistic sociopath who remorselessly causes death. When Jared's grandmother blackmails him, he realizes that she, too, is a mind reader. What he can't understand is why she wants to give the power to Annelise, nor can he imagine what the girl might choose to do with it. Interstellar Pig (1984) and The Duplicate (1988, both Dutton) are probably the best crafted and most appealing of Sleator's novels, but this one certainly will be enjoyed. Jared is likable, and his grandmother is absolutely fascinating. The anxiety reflected in the dreams of the boy's codependent mother is a deft touch. Although Annelise's villainy seems a bit heavy, and the denouement takes place rather summarily, the plot is enticing and the pace fast. This is an author who knows exactly what adolescents care about, and he effortlessly hooks them with a few paragraphs of first-person narration. His genius is in taking vague science-fiction whimsy and using imagery to word paint it into a stunning virtual reality. Nobody does it better!-Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY

After falling off his bicycle into a toxic waste dump, Jared develops the ability to read other people's thoughts. He is catapulted into psychic combat with his amoral grandmother and sociopathically manipulative cousin, both of whom are also mind-readers. In the course of this shrill, forced narrative, the beach compound in which Jared's extended family summers becomes a hotbed of robbery, greed and blackmail. Thin characterizations add little spice to an already jumbled plot: though Jared's cousin and grandmother do make heart-thumpingly nasty villainesses, it is difficult to understand just why they are so very mean. Ages 10-16. (Oct.)