Munmun

Starred review from February 5, 2018
In Yewess, an alternate America where money (called munmun) dictates one’s physical size, 14-year-old Warner, his older sister Prayer, and their disabled mother (all rat-size “littlepoors”)
are barely surviving; the siblings’ father was crushed when someone stepped on their house. Warner finds some solace in the communal slumberland of Dreamworld, where everyone is “middlescale.” The siblings set off with their friend Usher to find a rich husband for Prayer, but their journey is fraught with indignities and danger (“If we just all stick together then no one’s getting facechewed by a rat today,” says Warner as they set out). After being jailed, Warner is freed when a young woman named Kitty makes him her pet project; her wealthy father offers him a chance at success, but “scaling up” comes with a price. In a brash and wildly inventive novel, Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) effectively uses a gonzo alternate reality to frame urgent issues that include income inequality, rampant consumerism, and class disparity. Warner may be small, but his giant heart and brutally honest narration propel this intense, cuttingly funny novel. Ages 14–up. Agent: Claudia Ballard, William Morris Endeavor.

Narrator Andrew Eiden is youthful and engaging as Warner, a poor but plucky teenager living in an alternate United States. Physical size and access to resources, jobs, and education are determined by the munmun (money) in one's bank account. Along with his sister, Prayer, and best friend, Usher, Warner ventures forth in search of money-making "scale-up" opportunities. The only currency Warner carries is his special ability to create dreamscapes for others in "Dream World." Eiden's astute characterizations, especially of Warner, reveal humor and frustration during the miniscule teens' encounters with law enforcement, judiciary, gangs, and well-intentioned benefactors in "Life and Death World." Slang and colloquial expressions, ably performed, infuse this thought-provoking narrative on social and economic inequalities with authenticity. J.R.T. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine