Quicksilver

May 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-This sequel to Ultraviolet (Carolrhoda Lab, 2011) resumes the riveting tale of the lives of Alison and Tori, two former enemies whose sanity and survival depend on one another. The first book described Alison's journey into despair as she contemplated the possibility that she had murdered Tori. After a psychotic break caused by her severe synesthesia and time in a psychiatric unit, she emerged still unsure whether her memories of Tori's disappearance were factual. Here, the narrative switches to Tori. She has fled her hometown in order to evade authorities who are questioning her mysterious return after vanishing for three months and the unusual results from DNA samples provided to the authorities. With a determined detective and a genetic lab on their trail, Tori and her parents change their names and appearance and move to a new city in hopes of finding a normal life. No longer chic and popular, Tori keeps her head down and tries to remain invisible. She goes to school online, takes a job at a grocery store, and guardedly makes one new friend. Nothing could be more ordinary, until a part of her past, scientist Sebastian Faraday, reappears in her life. Tori's life and freedom and that of her friends are now in jeopardy. Can she use her intelligence, innate skills, and bravery to save them all or will she trade her life for theirs? The unique answer will leave readers shocked and amazed. A must for all libraries owning Ultraviolet and a reminder to others to buy them both.-Cindy Wall, Southington Library & Museum, CT

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2013
Alison's nemesis from Ultraviolet (2011) narrates the overlapping events in this mostly successful sequel-cum-companion piece. Tori's family flees Sudbury to reinvent themselves in southern Ontario, leaving identity, names and friends behind after her unusual DNA attracts unwanted medical attention--especially from Deckard, the Sudbury cop investigating her disappearance and return six months later. Disguise notwithstanding, Tori, beautiful and a brilliant engineer in the making, draws plenty of notice, especially from Milo, a Korean-Canadian fellow employee at the supermarket where she checks groceries. Their growing friendship, complicated by Milo's unrequited longing, is tested when Sebastian Faraday arrives on an urgent errand and Deckard shows up, determined to solve the mystery Tori represents. Though exceptional, Tori makes a strong, convincing protagonist whose fears, blocked sexuality and indifference to her looks ring true. While Sebastian and Alison remain vivid, Milo is less compelling--more supporting player than male lead. One structural factor bogs the story down. Crucial information and back story laid out in Ultraviolet is here withheld from readers until the end. Teasing readers is a time-honored technique for building suspense and usually effective--unless they already know what's being withheld. Luckily, Anderson's strong characters and rare knack for weaving contemporary realism and emotional authenticity into hard science fiction should keep even readers in the know engaged. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 15, 2013
Grades 9-12 The intense, well written follow up to Anderson's Ultraviolet (2011) once again turns things upside down by featuring 17-year-old Tori Beaugrand as the narrator, rather than the debut's narrator, Allison. Tori and her family are on the run, with new names, hairstyles, and even eye colors thanks to colored contacts. Rebranding herself as Niki, after famed engineer Nikola Tesla, she settles down into a hopefully quiet life in southern Ontario, Canada. But complications arise when Sebastian Faraday resurfaces and reveals she is still being hunted by the bad guys. With new, tentatively trustworthy friend Milo by her side, Niki/Tori uses all her engineering brilliance to grasp at a last faint hope to save herself and her family. Her plan might help her finally and forever elude the clutches of the obsessed detective on her trail, as well as the malevolent genetics lab sniffing out the strange tangles of her highly unusual DNAif it doesn't kill her first. The smart female protagonist, a refreshing lack of overly hormonal romantic focus, and puzzling plot twists engage to the very end of this absorbing read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)