Arclight

April 15, 2013
Marina was pulled from the Dark at the cost of nine lives, and she is paying the price. Ostracized and abused by those whose parents died for her sake, Marina is all but alone in the Arclight, a safe zone where it is never dark. The Fade live in the Dark—chameleons, they steal humans from the light to an unknown fate. Marina dreams of their voices and frets that she has no memory of her life before her rescue. Then, after a short, violent Fade incursion into the Arclight compound, Marina finds a Fade survivor lurking in the hallway—and it recognizes her. Who is Marina, and what are the Fade? If she can establish trust with Tobin, a boy whose father was lost in rescuing her, Marina may find the answers she seeks, though some readers may feel that those answers are a long time coming. Still, McQuein strongly evokes the claustrophobic tyranny of adult authority and institutional spaces, as well as the irrational human faith in the voice of “experience,” in this fine debut. Ages 13–up.

November 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-In this dystopian thriller, the Arclight is the only safe place. Outside the perimeter of light there is nothing but darkness and the alienlike creatures that reside there. The Fade, a parasitic race that has almost completely taken over mankind, make any humans they come in contact with part of their own species. Those within the security of the Arc fight to keep the Fade at bay, because, except for Marina, no one has been known to survive an encounter with one of these dark and terrifying creatures. Marina is unable to remember anything about her past after being rescued by a team sent from within the Arc, and she is disliked by almost everyone because of the nine lives sacrificed during the mission. As she struggles to find out who she is and where she fits in, Tobin, whose father was one of the nine, reaches out to her despite his own feelings of loss, and together, they discover secrets about the Arc that have been buried for years. While told in the present tense, flashbacks from Marina's past help fill in missing pieces as the story progresses. Marina's previous life is somewhat slow to unfold, but readers will most likely enjoy the suspense and mystery of this futuristic tale.-Erienne Jones, Guilford County Schools, Greensboro, NC

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