Nil Unlocked

February 15, 2015
Following Nil (2014), Rives falls for a new girl who holds the key to salvation from the alternate-dimension island.Skye arrives on Nil fully informed of the rules: Traveling portals called gates, some inbound and others outbound, appear every day at noon; teens thus deposited on Nil have one year to catch an outbound gate, and if they don't, they die. She knows this because her uncle escaped Nil and wrote a journal that has prompted her father's obsessive search for the island-and his training of Skye. They search for it among the Pacific Islands, where Skye secretly follows a local boy toward islands Skye and her father have been explicitly warned away from, naturally finding a gate. Meanwhile, Nil City leader Rives struggles to keep his people alive. The romance-new girl brings hope and hunky boy leads-is outwardly similar to Nil, but it's better integrated with the story, which is also more smoothly paced than its predecessor. They discover that the islanders use Nil in coming-of-age rituals. Even though the xenophobic islanders keep Nil's stationary outbound portals a cultural secret from kids stolen from other parts of the globe (many of whom die), Skye's sensitively apologetic for even asking. While Skye might be too close to perfect for some readers, she's a good match for Rives, and they work together to a conclusion that leaves readers with the barest of loose ends. A fast, tense gift for readers wanting to return to Nil. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Rives watches as his close friends Charley and Thad disappear, hopefully to safety. Every teenager deposited unwillingly on the island of Nil needs to catch an unpredictable outbound "gate" (shimmering wall of hot air) within a year of their arrival, or they will die. Now, Rives is Leader and feels the weight of responsibility. Skye's father's obsession with finding Nil started when his twin, Scott, was taken and then died not long after his return. When Skye meets Charley back in the United States and hears Charley's story, she knows Nil is real. Skye and her father travel to the South Pacific, where he suspects the island is located. When Skye irrationally follows a native boy through a gate, she, too, ends up on Nil. Skye and Rives are determined to unlock Nil's secret, lead a mass exodus from the nightmare, and maybe, take down the island altogether. Readers starting with this book will feel a little lost and cheated to have missed Charley and Thad's story in Nil (Holt, 2014). However, Rives and Skye's narratives will ensnare readers quickly. The island setting is akin to William Golding's Lord of the Flies, but the story of teens working together to escape will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner (Delacorte, 2009). VERDICT A must-have for fans of the first installment, but sufficiently interesting enough to draw in new readers.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
Grades 7-10 In this companion to Nil (2014), fiercely resourceful Skye inherits her uncle's decades-old journal and learns of his time on Nil, a tropical island that grabs teens through portals, holding them captive for exactly 365 days: they then have to catch an outgoing portal or die when the year is over. Alternating chapters from new arrival Skye and Nil's current leader, Rives, deliver predictable romance, rich backstory including the indigenous people's mythology, and a grand scheme to rescue all Nil's captive teens. Readers will appreciate a portrait of a successful teen society that bands together to save one another.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)