From School Library Journal
Grade 7–9—Adrian Havoc, 15, lives in an urban hotbox in the partially post-nuclear United Christian States, where the end of the world is nigh. He meets Lenora, a beautiful zookeeper on a mission to deliver a favorite penguin to colder waters. Adrian's semi-savant, semi-psychic little sister, Shriek, joins them on a trip through the radiated Deadlands to Maine, where the Havocs had a cabin. There they discover Adrian's long-missing father, a member of a Resistance force formed to combat an evil plot to fake the end of the world. Adrian is an engaging, earnest, and lovable character who finds humor in the most dire of circumstances. The dialogue and plot flow are fast paced and natural. The plot itself, unfortunately, is uninspired and confusing. There are too many coincidences, and Shriek, though nicely drawn and very charming, is the stock touched genius—like ET with freckles. With less than universal annihilation on the line, the tension never really builds, and the mood never seems appropriately desperate. The young people emerge from the toxic Deadlands unscathed with only a van to protect them, and everyone's still well fed despite the poisoned agriculture. Give fans of the genre Susan Beth Pfeffer's catastrophe novels instead.—
Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Fifteen-year-old Adrian’s world has been taken over by the HomeState, the tyrannical branch of the Everlasting United Christian States. His father disappeared years ago, his mother is away working on some governmental secret, and his sister, Shriek, is obsessed with the penguin at the city’s rundown zoo. When Adrian runs into a zookeeper willing to risk everything to get the penguin to a safe place, Adrian and Shriek join the expedition. Little do they know a trip to Maine will put them in the middle of the government’s mission to tighten its grip on the nation. A natural shift of the earth’s axis is coming. At the same time, the HomeState is making sure the Rapture will dawn. One event can’t be stopped. Can the second? Although the plot is convoluted, and at the end, rushed, readers will like the relationship between the characters, especially Adrian and Shriek. Some will not like that this slams Christianity (albeit here, out-of-control Christianity), but the message about what happens when govenment and religion mix is thought-provoking. Grades 6-9. --Ilene Cooper
