Strangelets

Gr 7 Up—Three teens from around the world suddenly find themselves in an abandoned hospital the exact moment that their lives would have ended. Sophie was about to die from cancer in California, Anat was about to be suffocated in a tunnel between Israel and Egypt, and Declan was about to be shot in Ireland. This sci-fi thriller focuses on these young people as they try to make sense of their situations, get to know one another, and struggle to work out how they can get back to their lives-if they possibly can. Strangelets switches point of view frequently and introduces a lot of characters at once, making the start a little bumpy for impatient readers. The complicated but innovative premise falls short, and the pace of the novel jumps from tortoise speed to cheetah and back again a bit too often. Perhaps the biggest surprise of a story that starts with the main characters seconds away from death is that it all comes to a tidy and convenient end. Despite the bumps, Strangelets definitely serves an audience that is chomping at the bit for more dystopian thrillers.—Emily Chornomaz, Camden County Library System, NJ