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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Salem Main Library | TEEN Grove, S. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | TEEN Grove, S. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Sentence , a lightly speculative, relevant puzzle box with undertones of Never Let Me Go .
The time is now. The place is San Francisco. The world is filled with adults devoid of emotion and children on the cusp of losing their feelings--of "waning"--when they reach their teens.
Natalia Pena has already waned. So why does she love her little brother with such ferocity that, when he's kidnapped by a Big Brother-esque corporation, she'll do anything to get him back?
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Sentence comes this haunting story of one determined girl who will use her razor-sharp wits, her martial arts skills, and, ultimately, her heart to fight killers, predators, and the world's biggest company to rescue her brother--and to uncover the shocking truth about waning.
Author Notes
S. E. Grove (segrovebooks.com) is a historian and world traveler. She spends most of her time reading about the early modern Spanish empire, writing about invented empires, and residing in Boston. Follow S. E. Grove on Twitter @segrovebooks.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5--8--Imagine a world with no love. No hate. No emotions. Between ages 10 and 11, children begin the waning process. They wane from their emotions and take society-approved drugs (or "synaffs") or they risk being overwhelmed by their violent emotions, becoming "Fish." Seventeen-year-old Natalia has already waned and is counting down the days until her highly emotional ten-year-old brother, Calvino, will, too. Natalia is Cal's only family, since their mother died by suicide and their father is unknown. One day, Cal does not come home from school. Natalia is told that her brother is being tested by RealCorp to figure out why he hasn't waned. Doctors assure Natalia that her brother is in good hands but something tells her otherwise. Kyla Garcia, Julio Sanchez, and Arthur Morey effectively narrate. The action becomes a bit labored midway through, but overall this is a solid listen. Mild drinking and drug use makes this title more appropriate for slightly older teens. VERDICT Give to fans of Lauren Oliver's Delirium and other dystopian novels.--Amanda Schiavulli, Liverpool Public Library, NY
Publisher's Weekly Review
Emotions have dried up in this stripped-down sci-fi noir novel by Grove (the Mapmakers trilogy), in which people "wane"-lose their ability to experience feelings-around age 10, a benchmark that keeps getting younger. Natalia Peña, 17, has been taking care of her younger brother, Cal, almost 11, since their mother died. Nat works as a maid at San Francisco's Landmark Hotel, where she occasionally rubs elbows with the very rich, who can buy calibrated emotions, or "synaffs," from manufacturing conglomerate RealCorp. Without feelings to guide them, the populace must follow strict rules to maintain law and order ("Know what harm is. And cause no harm. Know what need is. And help those in need") to keep from becoming violence-seeking "Fish." But Cal still responds to the world empathically and emotionally. When he is identified as a late waner and taken to RealCorp for testing, Nat determines to help her little brother, even without the ability to feel traditional love. Logic and reason are king in Grove's rich near-future world, where a Raymond Chandler-style narrative meets questions of ethics and technology. This fast-paced novel provides readers with a deep range of emotions while highlighting the importance of empathy, attachment, and emotional intelligence. Ages 14-up. Agent: Dorian Karchmar, William Morris Endeavor. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Natalia (Nat)'s little brother Calvino is ten, the age when people lose their ability to feel emotion. But Cal isn't "fading"--and now synthetic-emotion company RealCorp wants to test him cruelly. Nat will fight for her brother as hard as if she still loved him. While the world-building is not fully fleshed out, this intriguing dystopian premise makes for a fast-paced, thought-provoking read. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Set in an alternate San Francisco, Grove's (The Crimson Skew, 2016, etc.) latest posits a world where humans lose all emotions beginning at the age of 10. Understandably, Natalia Pea expects her 10-year-old brother, Cal, to undergo the waning process just like she did, but instead, his emotional capacity intensifies day after day. Cal's resistance to the fade eventually attracts the attention of RealCorp, a shadowy, mighty pharmaceutical corporation that manufactures synaffsexpensive drugs that incite feelings in users. When RealCorp kidnaps Cal for testing, Nat sets off on a single-minded pursuit to get her brother back. But what exactly is fueling her determination? Grove expertly builds a memorable, if eerily unflappable, heroine via a first-person narratorial voice that will keep readers engrossed until the bittersweet end. Chapters from Cal's limited point of view serve to fill in contextual and worldbuilding gaps left behind by Nat's adult-oriented narrative, revealing a world ruled by apathy and nostalgia for bygone eras. On her journey, Nat must contend with absent parents (deceased or otherwise) as well as the Fish, a drooglike group who've cast aside society's rules in favor of bleak violence. What's behind humanity's lack of emotions? Some potential answers (a decline in empathy coupled with unmonitored technological progress) seem terrifyingly plausible even in today's social climate. With few physical descriptions, diversity is indicated mostly through names, and Nat is cued as Latinx.A provoking, striking call to self-reflection. (Dystopian fiction. 14-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In a world without emotions, Natalia will do anything to get her little brother back. As children go through the waning, their emotions begin to fade; when they reach adulthood, they are completely emotionless. Natalia is old enough to be deprived of all emotion, but when her brother, Cal, is taken from her by a corporation, she begins to feel. Grove (The Glass Sentence , 2014) ventures into science fiction with this psychological story, which explores concepts of childhood wonder and innocence, the harsher world of adults, and the love that lies at the center. Natalia must overcome a series of obstacles to get Cal back, each dangerous and suspenseful: searching for Cal's father, staying a step ahead of a bounty on her head, and going against a corporation for custody. Natalia's journey is interwoven with texts and letters from Cal, which offers a commentary on where emotions come from and what their purpose is. A dazzling, emotional journey about a sister's love and the fight against an emotionless society.--Elizabeth Konkel Copyright 2019 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
An emotionless world where feelings are a commodity. A murderer pursuing a homecoming queen. These suspenseful novels showcase teenage ingenuity. WITH THRILLERS ON THE RISE 1? young adult literature, novelists are asking a question that adult authors and filmmakers have posed for years: "Who can you really trust?" The difference is that with Y.A., the answer generally isn't nobody. It's not that the stakes aren't high for teenagers. In four new novels, love, friendship and identity prove to be fraught - even deadly - propositions. Still, at some point in their struggle, the main characters decide to trust someone. And that, as the poet says, makes all the difference. s. E. grove's provocative new novel, the WANING AGE (Viking, 273 pp., $18.99; ages 12 and up), isn't overtly political, but it extrapolates from what might gently be called the downward trend in empathy in some pockets of America. Natalie Peña is an 18-yearold hotel maid living in San Francisco in a dystopian near-future. In her desensitized world, people lose all capacity for emotion at about 10, psychotic gangs called Fish ravage the city, and hateful 1-percenters buy "synaffs" from a pharmaceutical behemoth named RealCorp just so they can feel. Love, fury and agony have become playthings and status symbols - Botox for the heart. This being a dystopian novel, the folks at RealCorp clearly aren't the good guys. Early on, Natalie discovers that they've kidnapped her precious 11-year-old brother, Calvino, for testing. Calvino has never "waned," possibly because of the trauma surrounding his mom's death. He is a true empath and hence an invaluable lab rat. Grove, author of the "Mapmakers" trilogy, mixes action, noir, bram science and moral philosophy here. The book has its shaggy moments, as when it bogs down by distinguishing emotions from instincts. But at its best, "The Waning Age" is visceral and disarmingly smart. Natalie's quest to free Cal - and Cal's increasingly desperate loneliness at RealCorp - becomes gripping. And Grove refuses to write down to her audience, which makes her kin to her main character. Natalie may just barely remember what it means to feel, but she's as defiant and loyal a big sister as anyone could ask for. IT'S been said that there are only seven plots in existence: the slaying of a monster, the rise from rags to riches and so on. Karen M. McManus's debut smash, "One of Us Is Lying," a crackling murder mystery about high school detention, reminded us to add an eighth to the list: "The Breakfast Club." Her new novel, two can keep a secret (IF ONE IS DEAD) (Delacorte, 352 pp., $19.99; ages 12 and up), may be titled and packaged to look as much like a sequel as the law will allow, but it's actually a different beast - unfortunately, a tamer one. The new novel is set in Echo Ridge, Vt., that "Echo" being a wink from the author: It seems that whoever killed the homecoming queen five years ago has either returned or inspired a gloating copycat now targeting this year's festivities. "Two" unspools more slowly than "One," and the mystery doesn't deepen as the townspeople gossip - it just gets more convoluted. We warm to the alternating narrators as they warm to each other: Malcolm, "the band nerd with the disreputable family," and Ellery, the true-crime buff whose mom is in rehab. But there's a solar system of others meant to distract us from the true killer and, honestly, they're just kind of distracting. McManus is a gifted writer with a devious mind for crime. She could have done more to transform these scary-movie tropes, just as she jolted "The Breakfast Club." Both her novels trade on the idea that even teenagers have secrets worth lying and possibly dying for - which is empowering, in an odd way. But "Two Can Keep a Secret" is a holding gesture rather than an advance. Read it, but know that McManus has more electrifying novels to come. WHAT ARE HEROIC KNIGHTS supposed to do once they've finished saving the kingdom and it's time to break up the band? Open a theme restaurant? Release solo albums? E. K. Johnston's sly, funny, foamy adventure THE AFTERWARD (Dutton, 337 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up) intertwines a quest to vanquish an evil old god with the aftermath of the expedition, in which our heroes try to establish a new normal in a world where people sing ballads about their awesomeness. "The Afterward" is written as Arthurian high fantasy and takes place in a land called Cadrium, which, appealingly, doesn't have our dogmatic notions of gender and sexuality. Virtually everyone in the brave cast of characters is a young woman or identifies as such. What pulls you along, more than the scuffling over an all-powerful "godsgem," is the love story between the thrill-seeking thief named Olsa and the stouthearted apprentice Kalanthe, whom she sweetly refers to as "my brave nearlya-knight." The structure of "The Afterward" is trickier than it needs to be. It not only moves back and forth through time but also alternates between first and third person. (Whoever decided that the book could forgo the convention of putting characters' names at the beginning of each chapter they narrated was ... incorrect.) But the gender flip is effortless and enlivening: "I leaned into her, and she looked down at me. Then, because I was a thief, I stole a kiss." Even the less vivid chapters have rousing set pieces, and Johnston's love for storytelling is catching. Here's hoping "The Afterward" becomes the first m a series. Kalanthe and Olsa's happily ever after will be like no one else's. the first test of a whodunit is how heartstopping and strange a thing has actually been dun. In SPIN (Scholastic, 400 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up) Lamar Giles (no relation) nails the murder: An up-and-coming young D. J. named Paris Secord is found in an "almost religious" tableau, slumped over her turntables and bleeding from the head. Giles also puts a pair of memorable "detectives" on the case: two of Paris's sharp-elbowed high school friends, Kya and Fuse, who formerly vied for her attention. The girls try to set aside their mutual distrust and team up to solve their friend's killing, partly to exonerate themselves but mostly because they don't trust the police to understand how deeply Paris's life mattered. "Spin" has jolts and misdirection. It has duplicitous bloggers, avaricious music executives and sadistic fans in white masks. But what's even more impressive is the subtle stuff you almost don't notice because Giles wears his intellect so lightly: the masterly knowledge of hip-hop and R&B; the command of technology's uses and abuses; the discerning ear for the way high schoolers talk, both to one another and to grown-ups. Giles understands the complex force field between generations. He knows that when parents and grandparents say they "expect more" from teenagers, it's often because they haven't bothered to figure out who the teenagers actually are. A two-time nominee for an Edgar (as in Allan Poe) award, Giles is also a terrific plotter. Yes, there's a character who so obviously might be the murderer that he/she can't possibly be the murderer. But evaluating suspects is part of the ritual and the fun, and everyone here feels palpably real. At one point, someone compares Kya and Fuse to Veronica Mars. He may not know what a compliment that is. "Spin" champions the resourcefulness of teenagers and pities the grown-ups - villainous or just clueless - who underestimate them. JEFF GILES is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of the series "The Edge of Everything."