Chantal Boudreau's well-written and driven novel, Elevation, takes up the story of the children of Fervor as they try to find safety. Sam and part of his house-family are on their way to find Elevation and the latents, while Royce and Elliot are left behind on Fervor trying to find more children to save and take to Elevation as well.
Getting into the story was a bit of a challenge because I had not read Fervor which undoubtedly set up the background of the characters and the world they inhabit. The challenge of this was clear: figure out how these characters worked as a group and became the people they are without being told, much like real life. Luckily, with careful reading, all of my questions were answered as the story progressed and the author avoided wasting the entire first chapter recapping what had transpired in the first book. It was a classic and well-executed jump right into the middle of the story, in medias res.
The technique of following the children with two separate main characters allows the reader to view the world from two very different perspectives. Sam is a young pre-teen who has a touch of naivety but is developing his skills and abilities, while Royce, an older teen, is struggling with authority figures and his own independence of thought and action, as many teens and young adults do. Both Royce and Sam are trying to discover their independence and at the same time solidify their respective roles within their larger family units. The questions the children face are not unlike the questions that all children and young adults struggle with every day, but set in a fantastic world.
In fact, the world of Elevation appears, on the surface, to be much like our own. However, the abilities of the children, the technology they encounter, and the matter-of-fact way they interact with their world create a fantasy/sci-fi world that is so familiar and yet so different. Creating a real, un-real world is one of the greatest accomplishments of any successful sci-fi/fantasy novel, and Elevation is highly-successful, so much so, that the reader is forced to more closely examine the two worlds to question if this could be our world.
I commend the author for creating a world that isn't ours, but could be. This question "could this be us?" nags at the reader throughout the story, and this, combined with the well-rounded and realistic characters, made this reader finish the story in a matter of hours. The questions the children face will long linger in my mind and I am reminded of some of the other great young adult fantasy novels which left me with the same questioning and doubts. As the story came to a close, the author left me intrigued and waiting for the next chapter in these children's lives.
I highly recommend Elevation to those who enjoy young adult literature as well as sci-fi/fantasy; though I think a love of fantasy is not required because the author does such a great job of making the world accessible. It is a story of growing and learning about one's self that is appropriate for anyone.
