Henry Franks

August 27, 2012
A horror classic gets a facelift in this modern-day version of Frankenstein, Salomon's debut. It's been a year since an accident left Henry Franks amnesiac and covered in scars, suffering from nightmares, and losing feeling in his extremities. Now 16, Henry is obsessed with uncovering his lost past, but his father is evasive and none of the clues line up properly. Only his neighbor Justine seems willing to help. An awkward romance blossoms between the teens as they unravel Henry's disturbing origins, but the arrival of a serial killer may put an end to everything. The novel's mystery, romance, and horror elements tie together like Henry's scars: the seams show, but for the most part it works as a whole. Salomon nails the ominous atmosphere and increasing sense of dread, though the climax is muddled (the presence of both the serial killer and an impending hurricane amps up the story's tension, but also feels gratuitous). Nevertheless, it's a strong start for a promising author. Ages 13âup. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

August 1, 2012
Loner sophomore Henry Franks desperately wants to regain his memory so he can find out if he is who his father says he is. Henry's body is a road map of scars thanks to the auto accident that supposedly killed his mother. He has no memory of the accident or of life before waking up on St. Simons Island in Georgia. He regularly sees a psychiatrist, but she just repeats that recovery of his memory is a process that may take time. His only friend at school is Justine, his beautiful neighbor, who doesn't care about his scars. Henry's disturbed by dreams of a little girl who calls him daddy and tells him his name is Victor. When he finds a box of mysterious photographs in the cellar, he and Justine begin investigating his past. Meanwhile, a hurricane bears down on the coast of Georgia, and a serial killer is on the loose. When Henry and Justine discover the truth, it's more amazing and terrifying than either expected. Salomon's debut stumbles out of the gate, and then, when it finally picks up steam, it is hobbled by an annoying grammatical quirk of rendering several short, sequential lines of dialogue with no attribution. At times, this tendency renders it nearly unreadable; neither intriguing characters nor its interesting riff on the Frankenstein story can save it. A tertiary purchase for those who seek creepy science fiction. (Horror. 14 & up)

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December 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-It's been nine months, but Henry still can't remember the accident that killed his mother and left him covered in scars-or anything before that. With a sweltering summer starting, the teen has a lot of time on his hands, but he just can't piece together who he is or, more mysteriously, why he has no feeling in an increasing portion of his body or why his father spends so much time at his job at the morgue. As a hurricane approaches and a serial killer roams the island off the Georgia mainland, Henry and his neighbor Justine begin to unravel a tangle of lies and connected horrors. Salomon begins with an interesting premise, modernizing the Frankenstein story, but doesn't deliver. The first two thirds of the novel fail to build any tension despite the twin threats of an oncoming hurricane and an unidentified serial killer, which leaves the ending feeling rushed. The final reveal depends on a completely new character never mentioned before and allows things to be wrapped up too tidily, and the epilogue is completely preposterous, even in a story where the readers' belief has already been suspended. The dialogue never feels natural, and descriptions are often repetitive. This story is full of disparate elements stitched together in a final product that is unbelievable and unsustainable.-Gretchen Kolderup, New Canaan Library, CT

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2012
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* It took 4,317 stitches to put 16-year-old Henry Franks back together again following the car crash that killed his mother. But some pieces are still missing. Suffering total amnesia, panic attacks, and a spreading numbness of his flesh ( parts of me are dying ), Henry is beset by dreams in which a little girl calls him Daddy, while his days are spent in lonelinessaside from the neighbor girl, Justine, who is not repelled by his spiderwebs of scars. With Justine's help, Henry begins to uncover the truth of his identity. His mysterious father, who works at a hospital (or is it a morgue?), offers him little information, but each night leaves huge piles of fast food on the back porch as if feeding something in the woods. And what does that have to do with the local rash of murders via blunt force trauma ? Salomon's Frankenstein homage churns through its often confounding but highly unnerving plot like a slow nightmarereaders won't be entirely sure they even want to know how it ends. The scenes are clipped, the dialogue spare, and the prose rewards meticulous reading, making this debut the thinking teen's horror choice of the year.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)