Those That Wake

January 24, 2011
Karp debuts with a dark and often technophobic thriller that falters a bit with its premise, but nonetheless entertains. In the near future, after a terrorist attack has increased human isolation and dependency on corporations, two teens become the victims of a mysterious entropic force that causes people to be forgotten by everyone who has known them. Mal, 17, has led a tough life, living in foster care and taking out his aggressions in the boxing ring, while Laura's suburban life has been generally happy. As both are cut off from family and friends, they get pulled into a conspiracy involving a government agency, a hidden office building, and powerful mind control. Karp ably ratchets up the suspense, but the book's final revelation defies even generous suspension of disbelief. That stumbling block—as well as the chaotic ending—would be relatively minor if not for the frustrating second-half prominence of obnoxious and a consistently dislikable schoolteacher, who drags down every scene he's in. Mal and Laura's adventure and romance is still compelling, though, for those who stick with it. Ages 12–up.

February 1, 2011

Laura and Mal have both lost their families; Laura's parents have mysteriously forgotten their only child, and Mal's brother vanished suddenly. Stuck in a dismal technocentric, corporation-controlled New York City, the two teens join up with disillusioned schoolteacher Mike and shadowy researcher Jon on a quest to find the Librarian, the one person who can explain the strange happenings. Karp's gray and dispassionate setting unfortunately carries over to the narrative and the characters, as though both plot and people are obscured by fog. Mal is anger incarnate, with attempts at subtler character development providing only the thinnest veneer; Laura's personality, meanwhile, vanishes as easily as her identity. Instead of engaging with concerns over the cultural acceptance of technology, à la Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (2008), Karp seems to adopt a Luddite position, categorizing all forms of gadgetry as a detriment to society. Both the burned-out–teacher and powerful-librarian tropes appear to be an authorial insider joke to adult readers rather than critical elements of the plot. For more compelling tales of corporate malfeasance, try Max Barry's Jennifer Government (2003) or Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday (2004) instead of this rather bland offering in a field overrun with dystopias. (Dystopia. YA)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-Things have been bleak in New York City ever since "Big Black," the explosion that destroyed Con Edison and the two-week aftermath of darkness, rioting, looting, and murder. Residents interact with their cell phones more than with one another. For four New Yorkers, though, things are much worse than bleak. One day Laura wakes to find that no one remembers her existence. Mal's brother is missing, and his only lead is that Tommy was running errands for someone in an empty office tower that doesn't seem to conform to the laws of physics. Jon Remak is an agent for a cooperative of loosely aligned groups that tracks the Global Dynamic, an intricate network of indicators that can be used to predict human history. Mike Boothe is a teacher who finds a door in his high school's basement that did not exist before. The four meet in the course of their investigations and discover that they face an adversary that is bent on controlling all of humanity. Karp has created a terrifically gloomy set and peopled it with both very real characters and others that are eerily unreal. His Global Dynamic smacks of Asimov's psychohistory while the entire tone seems like something from Philip K. Dick. With plenty of action, challenging ideas, and bizarre antagonists, this one should appeal to a broad section of teens.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
Grades 9-12 New York has become a grimly dystopian city in the wake of another apocalyptic explosion. The four-block impacted area has been covered by a huge dome that reminds New Yorkers of the devastation, even as they bury their eyes in the omnipresent handheld devices that beam endless consumer messages to them. Teen bruiser Mal receives an urgent call for help from his estranged brother, who then promptly disappears. Meanwhile, Laura discovers her parents inexplicably no longer know her. Their respective quests for the truth bring them together, along with a disaffected teacher and an agent for a mysterious organization investigating strange occurrences that are threatening not only New Yorkers but all of humanity. This first novel is an ambitious, cautionaryand even paranoiacstory of the soul-destroying power of a consumer society run amok and the near-cosmic forces it unleashes. Its a fascinating premise, and though the page-turning action slows a bit in the second half to explore some of the more abstruse causes behind the mind-bending effects, that doesnt detract from the great many intriguing, original, and thought-provoking ideas at play here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)