Prism

When light is refracted through a prism, the light that comes out is the same light that went in--but it's altered slightly. That's what happens to three teens on a school trip to Carlsbad Caverns. After a terrible crash in the desert, Kaida, Joy, and Zeke fall through a hole in space-time and awaken in their own beds in a mirror universe in which illness is a death sentence because medicine doesn't exist. Jenna Lamia's voice provides just the right ingenuousness to Kaida as the 14-year-old stumbles around in a world in which everything is changed. Lamia makes Kaida's confusion palpable and her suspicions reasonable. The story is a bit of a stretch, but tweens and younger teens will find enough excitement to keep them listening. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

July 27, 2009
This first collaboration between bestselling mystery author Faye Kellerman and her teenage daughter Aliza has an enticing premise but falls short. After a van accident in the desert during a school trip, high schooler Kaida Hutchenson and two classmates seek shelter in a cave and have the mysterious sensation of falling as they seek an exit. Kaida then wakes up in her own bedroom, thinking the past events are a dream. Everything seems normal (she awakens to Metallica on the radio) until she witnesses a white-robed “cleanup crew” take away an injured man who's been hit by a car. With some investigation and help from a cute boy, Kaida discovers that she is in an alternate dimension where medicine and health care are illegal, and where those who go against the natural order of the world are dealt with in a Big Brother–like manner. Though the slow-building mystery is handled deftly, the execution of the mirror world feels simplistic, with the authors basically sidestepping the broader ramifications that a lack of medicine would have had on human society over time. Ages 12–up.

February 1, 2010
Gr 7 Up-In this paranormal thriller (HarperCollins, 2009) by Faye and Aliza Kellerman, Kaida Hutchenson, 15, is not excited to be on a school trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico with swimmer Zeke Anderson and smoker Joy Tallon. When their van crashes in the desert and catches fire, the teens barely have time to escape before it explodes. They take refuge in a cave to stay out of the rain, and are mysteriously transported to a parallel world. They wake up in their own beds in California like it was all a dream, except one thing is differentKaida and Zeke watch a man get hit by a car and instead of an ambulance a cleanup crew takes away the body. The teens figure out that they now live in a world where there is no such thing as health care or medicine. Darwin's natural selection has been taken to extreme. The fittest survive and those who try to fight the "natural order" are thrown in jail. Jenna Lamia brings to life Kaida, the scared yet sassy purple-haired teen. Much of the story's suspense comes from her performance. Thoughtful listeners will find many gaps in the prism-like other world and the implications of no medicine."Samantha Larsen Hastings, West Jordan Library, UT"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
Grades 9-12 High schoolers Kaida, Joy, and Zeke sign up for their class trip to New Mexico with nothing in commonthey are merely assigned to the same bus. But after a crash in the desert, the three takerefuge in a cave and are soon lostunderground . . . and then suddenly they wake up. Theyre back in school again, the class trip hasnt yet happened, andthe crashseems like a bad dream.This propulsive premise takes a weird turn when Kaida realizes that something is different: this version of reality doesnt acknowledge the concept of being sick. There are no hospitals, no doctors, and no medicine (unless you count the dealers plying black-market pills on the street). The Kellermans prose isnt going to win any style points, but they milk their bizarre setup for all its worth, imagining an alternate present where the sick are treated as junkies anda mere cough makes you a pariah.Periodic lapses in logicwont prevent this fast, paranoid thriller from flying off shelves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)