The Many Selves of Katherine North

February 15, 2016
In a near-future setting with dark undertones, teen Katherine “Kit” North works as a phenomenaut, projecting her consciousness into the bodies of various lab-grown animals to study how they experience their natural environments. Together with her trusted partner, Buckley, who monitors her original body and vital signs in the lab, she has projected steadily for seven years, becoming the world’s most experienced phenomenaut. But when she is shifted from research to the tourism department, which lets novice phenomenauts inhabit the minds of wild animals, Kit begins to have serious doubts about the ethics and intentions of her company. The descriptions of animal projection are detailed and intriguing, but the story devolves into a dizzying morass of paranoia and animal instinct as the plot loses coherence. Readers of literary novels may enjoy the psychological aspects, but SF fans will be disappointed that the speculative elements are little more than background.

May 15, 2016

In the near future, Kit works as a "phenomenaut" for the Shen Corporation, projecting human consciousness into lab-grown animals (such as a fox, a spider, and a seal). The beast, embedded with Kit's human intelligence, then lives in a natural environment. Shen Corp. has used Kit's research, and those of others like her, to study these creatures and their habitats. Now 19, Kit has been doing this for seven years, longer than thought possible. Then the company announces that it will be expanding into "tourism," placing human consciousness into artificially developed beings. The new phenomenauts won't have experience in jumping but will only be doing it as a kind of vacation. This raises ethical issues for Kit, who then digs deeper into Shen's business model and makes an unsettling discovery. VERDICT Kit is a fascinating protagonist, and the descriptions of the animal lives she "lives" are wonderfully detailed. However, the multiple time lines are difficult to untangle at times. Despite its ambitions, Geen's first novel stumbles a bit in its execution.--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016
In the not-so-distant future, 19-year-old Katherine North, known as Kit, works for a corporation that specializes in zoological research, ShenCorp. Kit's work involves projecting her consciousness into different animals to better understand their behaviors. Kit is asked by ShenCorp to assist customers with their own jumps into various animals, which she does with the personal goal of helping people to understand animals. However, when she realizes that people are not changed by the experience, the new job creates an ethical dilemma for Kit, who truly loves and values animals. Kit is also rethinking her career, because she has started to notice anomalies during her jumps and feels herself acting uncharacteristically. Kit's experiences as an animal are some of the best moments in the novel, because they allow Geen's lyrical prose to truly shine. The varied terminology Geen creates to reinforce her world can be a barrier to comprehending all of the details, but this book is a great match for readers who were fans back in the day of the popular teen series Animorphs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)