The Alex Crow

Starred review from January 19, 2015
Smith (Grasshopper Jungle) turns in another audacious performance, this time a wild tale of summer camps, adoptive families, mad bombers, masturbation slang, illegal biological research, and an icebound 19th-century ship. Ariel, a 14-year-old orphan caught up in a civil war in an unnamed foreign nation, has been brought to the U.S. by an executive from the mysterious Merrie-Seymour Research Group. Soon after, Ariel and his new stepbrother, Max, are shipped off to Camp Merrie-Seymour for Boys, “a sort of disciplinarian’s boot camp—a detox center for kids who were unable to disconnect from cell phones and technology.” Ariel and Max aren’t tech addicts, but their father is one of the Merrie-Seymour’s chief scientists so the camp is free, and Ariel’s stepparents hope it will help the boys bond. Meanwhile a deranged bomber meanders across the U.S. in a van holding a dangerously radioactive homemade bomb, and a horned monster, the Dumpling Man, is rumored to haunt the woods outside the camp. Fans of Smith’s raunchy, profane, and provocative work will find this funny but morally serious tale deeply appealing. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

Starred review from January 15, 2015
Three stories wind round one another in unexpected ways in this science-fiction offering peppered with recurring symbols.Fifteen-year-old Ariel Burgess survived a nightmarish attack on his home village by hiding in a refrigerator. He was taken in by a family in Virginia, and to his chagrin, he has now been packed off along with his adoptive brother, Max, to stay at Camp Merrie-Seymour for Boys, a free perk his family receives for the work done by their inventor father for a research group. A multitude of strange and grimly funny characters populates the camp, including Mrs. Nussbaum, a prim therapist whose forced cheer is at one point hilariously described as being "about one-half-octave above 'drunkenly enthusiastic' and just below the sound baby dolphins make" and who offers the first hint that all may not be as it seems. Two other narrative threads-one involving a ship called the Alex Crow stuck in the ice during the 1800s and the other detailing the madness of a character called the "melting man," who hears various voices urging him to commit acts of violence-are juxtaposed against Ariel and Max's story, smartly weaving their ways into it right up to the surprising conclusion. Magnificently bizarre, irreverent and bitingly witty, this outlandish novel is grounded by likable characters and their raw experiences. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

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February 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-The author weaves several odd yet connected story threads: the 19th-century Arctic exploration aboard the ill-fated Alex Crow ship; a madman's bizarre U-Haul road trip; and the Merrie-Seymour Research Group and its de-extinction program. But the most compelling narrative is that of Ariel, a teenage refugee of an unnamed country, who is adopted into an American family. He and his brother, Max, are sent to Camp Merrie-Seymour "where boys rediscover the fun of boyhood." The camp's purpose is to wean teenage boys off of their technology addictions. Unfortunately for Max and Ariel, their father works for Merrie-Seymour, so they're forced to attend because it's free. Smith deftly combines Ariel's harrowing wartime horrors juxtaposed against his hilarious six weeks at an American summer camp with maladjusted teenage boys. The teen protagonist is the lens through which readers see how society exerts its control over teenage boys' thoughts and actions. And Camp Merrie-Seymour is the satirical showcase for how often these boys are expected to deal with the harsh world on their own without any real guidance from adults. Smith's writing seems to ebb from an honest place, not one of nostalgia, but of the discomfort and agony of adolescence. Smith follows up his enthralling, boundary-pushing Grasshopper Jungle (Dutton, 2014) with this more cohesive and brilliant work. VERDICT A must-have for all YA collections.-Kimberly Garnick Giarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library, NJ

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Starred review from February 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Ariel, a refugee from an unnamed, war-torn country, has been adopted by the Burgesses, and he and the Burgesses' son, Max, have been sent to a camp for boys addicted to electronics (even though they're not). The camp is owned by the company where their father works as a scientist in the Alex division, an arm of the company dedicated to, among other things, resurrecting extinct animals and creating biodrones, animals (people included) implanted with surveillance hardware. Ariel is reluctant to speak out loud, fearing that he will burden others with his painful stories, but his stark narrative, both of life at camp and of the harrowing details of how he came to the U.S., reveals a startling depth of character. Interspersed with Ariel's story are the nineteenth-century journal entries from one of the founding members of the Alex division and his first experiments in de-extinction, and the bizarre narrative of the crazily unraveling Lenny, one of the first biodrones, whose hallucinations lead him to commit grotesque acts. Smith is a spiritual heir to Kurt Vonnegut, and that's especially clear in this novelscience fiction, the horrors of war, the cruelty of violence, ribald humor (in particular, Max's impressive and witty list of euphemisms for masturbation), and the vagaries of memory combine in a deeply affecting, sometimes disturbing, but ultimately hopeful way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)