Wuftoom

April 23, 2012
In this wildly imaginative debut, Thompson creates a strange world of bizarre underground species at war with one another. Caught in the middle is Evan, a seventh-grader who has been slowly transforming into an inhuman creature ever since he stepped in a puddle of pink goo two years earlier. As he nears the end of his involuntary evolution into one of the amorphous, wormlike Wuftoom, he’s recruited by the enigmatic Vitflies as a spy, a role he quickly comes to question. While Evan acclimates to his new nature and hungers, he’s torn between loyalty to his new people and the life he left behind, forced to make a choice that could alter the balance of power underground. Dark and unsettling, Thompson’s adventure presents a break from the same-old-same-old by creating something utterly new and weird—sexy YA paranormal this is not. While some plot elements, such as Evan’s body-swapping jaunts, feel underexplored, this is a tale to jolt readers out of their complacency, where characters change in unfamiliar ways with no guarantee of a happy ending. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

April 1, 2012

Gr 6-9-Evan, a sixth grader, is confined to his room where all the windows are covered to keep out any light that might torture him. His mother comes home exhausted from a terrible job she keeps for the insurance so that doctors will continue to see him, even though they have no idea what is wrong with him. Evan finds out from the wormlike creature that slithers across his floor at night that he is slowly turning into a Wuftoom like it. A giant, mothlike horror that is one of the Vitflies also visits Evan. As the boy gets caught up in a war between the two kinds of creatures, he also unwittingly pulls in one of his classmates. The thought of Jordan going through this same process in which his hands and arms and legs are slowly fusing into a worm body covered in a pink and slimy membrane upsets Evan, and it will probably have the same effect on readers. Those with strong stomachs for the gross and creepy may be the audience for this Kafkaesque book, but it's unlikely to appeal to a wide audience.-Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO

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