Missing in Tokyo

July 10, 2006
Charlotte, older sister of 18-year-old Adam Grey, is ostensibly taking a year off, traveling with her friend Alice. When Charlie goes missing while working in a hostess bar in Tokyo, Adam's shocked parents, already grappling with the rapid decline of his grandmother, seem to go numb. Fleeing his mother's tears, his father's "permanent mood of angry impotence" and the tightlipped local investigators, Adam withdraws funds, swipes a reserve credit card from his father's drawer and flies from Britain to Tokyo to find Charlie himself. Roughly the last two-thirds of Marks's (Zoo
) novel unfold as an anxious, third-person travelogue, describing a gritty mix of working-class expats, yakuza gangsters and hip Japanese teens enthralled with Adam's blonde hair. As he falls for—and sleeps with—Aiko (a smart, scooter-driving beauty), Adam questions everything from Alice's motives in reporting Charlie's disappearance, to his loyalty to his British girlfriend. Teens expecting a denouement equivalent to the ratcheting suspense of Adam's mission might feel slightly let down (Charlie has apparently simply absconded with Alice's boyfriend). Instead, the novel's strength derives from the pulsing slice of life, cut from Tokyo's neon landscape—from the tiny, stacked bedrooms of capsule hotels to the outré costumes of roving scenesters. The stranger-in-a-strange-land motif, spiked with sexy Japanophilia and British slang, should draw literate manga fans and Anglophiles alike. Ages 12-up.

June 1, 2006
Gr 9 Up -A phone call in the middle of the night to Adam -s parents changes their lives. His older sister, Charlie, is missing in Tokyo. According to Alice, her best friend and traveling companion, Charlie left Bar Belle with a male customer, never to be seen again. To make matters worse, Adam knew that his sister was working as a hostess in a gentleman -s club and never shared that information with his parents. To the police, this omission looks suspicious. Frustrated with the lack of progress in the investigation, the teen, unbeknownst to his parents, jets off to the back alleys of Tokyo to find out what happened to his sister. When he catches a glimpse of Alice, she runs away from him. Confused and overwhelmed by her reaction, he decides to drown his sorrows in a local bar. The next morning he wakes up in the bed of beautiful Aiko, whom he immediately enlists in his search. A passionate relationship ensues. As the pieces of his sister -s disappearance begin to fall into place, the teen finds himself mixed up in a kidnapping, the Japanese Mafia, and the Tokyo drug scene. The plot twists and turns in this fast-paced, intriguing novel that will keep readers guessing." -Angela M. Boccuzzi-Reichert, Merton Williams - Middle School, Hilton, NY"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2006
Gr. 10-12. Even teens who disdain youth thrillers in favor of grittier adult fare may make an exception for this noir-tinged novel, by the author of " How It Works "(2004) and others. When his older sister disappears in Tokyo, London teen Adam flies to Japan to track her down. Staggered by the city's neon-lit sprawl and certain that his trip will prove a "dubious act of rank stupidity," Adam drinks himself "rat-arsed" at a bar, awakening nude beside gorgeous Aiko. Her halting English ("We be fine, Adam. Trus me") helps him to more effectively trace his sister's connections to Tokyo's seamy underbelly, a journey that takes him along unexpected paths that force him to recognize the fine line between hubris and heroism. Aiko, characterized mostly by her willingness to have "endless sex" (most of which takes place offscreen), never rises above a stock, study-abroad fantasy, and the novel doesn't smoothly reconcile its action-adventure and travelogue impulses--though readers obsessed with Japanese pop culture will appreciate the latter, especially chapter headings ("Flavorous and delicious communication") inspired by real "Janglish" found on Tokyo signs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)