The Summer Prince

Starred review from January 14, 2013
Eighteen-year-old artist June Costa is a citizen of Palmares Três, a vertically structured city in what was once Brazil, with the rich at the top, the poor at the bottom, and a vital tradition of music and dance. Its centenarian queen keeps a tight rein on the tech—electronic and pharmaceutical—that allows for intensive state security and bodily modification. Privileged but rebellious June and her best friend Gil live on Tier Eight, and when they get involved with Enki, a beautiful bottom-tier resident who will serve a year as the summer king before his ritual sacrifice, her political art gains attention, and things get dangerous. In her YA debut, Johnson (the Spirit Binders series) depicts a future that’s recognizably Brazilian and human—June may have nanohooks, holo screens, and light implants, but 400 years on, teens still resent their parents and find ways to subvert the technology their elders theoretically control. With its complicated history, founding myth, and political structure, Palmares Três is compelling, as is the triple bond between June, Enki, and Gil as they challenge their world’s injustices. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management.

Taking place in a postapocalyptic but blossoming Brazil, this novel follows June Costa as she navigates love and friendship with her dear friend, Gil, and Enki, the Summer King, who is to be sacrificed by year's end. Rebecca Mozo performs the third-person narrative with great skill and energy while Lincoln Hoppe delivers Enki's thoughts in the first person. Hoppe's strong inner voice for Enki resonates with the character voice of Enki established by Mozo. But the choice to have both narrators deliver the story with accents is odd since it's never made clear if they reflect the author's intent. L.E. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine