The Whisper

Starred review from December 15, 2014
In this sequel to The Riverman (2014), 12-year-old Alistair Cleary travels to a parallel world searching for his missing friend, Fiona.Convinced that Fiona's trapped in one of Aquavania's worlds and his childhood friend Charlie's somehow involved, Alistair, whose "curiosity...sometimes lapse[s] into foolishness," accesses a liquid portal in Fiona's basement and lands in Mahaloo, Aquavania's master entryway. Here he learns that kids like Fiona who created Aquavania's worlds are "daydreamers," the creatures they create are "figments," and outsiders like him are "swimmers"-and a creature known as the Whisper is sucking away daydreamers' souls and subsequently controlling their worlds. Racing to find Fiona before the Whisper does, Alistair travels from one bizarre world to the next, where he's manipulated and betrayed by surreal figments. Meanwhile, flashbacks of his twisted relationship with Charlie lead him to suspect his old friend is playing a dangerous game, and Alistair is "It." Inclusion of a back story of Aquavania's origins and history about Charlie and Fiona add mythic depth, fleshing out this tale of a timid hero who learns to trust his intuition as he confronts his past and faces a bewildering reality. A riveting, imaginative, disconcerting, inscrutable, unresolved sequel, guaranteed to leave readers anxious for the finale. (Fantasy. 10-14)

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Starred review from February 1, 2015

Gr 6-9-In this second part of the trilogy, Aquavania, a complex web of worlds, is beset by destruction. The Riverman, also known as the Whisper, is destroying worlds by sucking the souls of their creators when they ask for "an end to it all," tired of their own creations and unable to readapt to the real world. When their souls are captured by the Whisper, the kids go missing in the real, or "solid," world. Readers of the first book will enjoy the layers of history of Aquavania, revealed through creation stories that are interpersed between Alistair's quest to find Fiona and battle the Whisper. Meanwhile, newcomers to the series won't be too far behind (there's plenty of exposition woven skillfully through the first few chapters). Readers will savor the (at times) gruesome encounters with monsters, and the unraveling mystery of who Alistair and Fiona really are. The trilogy explores the dark nature of lies-written, told, and enacted-and the surprising pain of truth. Jealousy, revenge, opportunism, and their consequences, also loom large in the lives of characters, be they swimmers (those able to enter and exit portals into different worlds), daydreamers (those who create the worlds), figments (those beings created by the daydreamers), or ciphers (terrifying creatures molded by the Whisper to destroy). Penning something of a cautionary tale, Starmer has constructed a multitude of worlds here, all tied to power of creation, and the boredom that ultimate power ultimately bestows. VERDICT Ending with a staggering twist, readers adept at navigating this atemporal telling will clamor to get their hands on book three.-Sara Lissa Paulson, The American Sign Language and English Lower School, New York City

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