Shaunta Grimes

At their new home in Logandale, Nevada, Gideon notices the girl next door skating in a superhero costume on her front porch. Roona is unlike anything Gideon has been raised to be. She wears her baby blanket like a cape because it’s what she was wrapped in when her father saved her from a house fire. Thanks to the cape she says she has Wonder Roo magic. But there is a darkness and sadness under the magic: she hasn’t seen her father since he rescued her from the fire and joined the Air Force; her mother’s depression manifests itself in her baked goods and affects all who eat them; and there is something about her aunt’s family in Boise that she can’t tell Gideon about. As Mrs. Mulroney’s mental health gets worse, Roona believes her father can fix things and enlists Gideon to help her find him in Las Vegas. Very much from a child’s point of view, no dialogue or perceptions feel contrived as Gideon figures out how to best help Roona.… (más)

Viral Nation takes place in a world where most of the population has been obliterated by an unnamed virus. America now exists under a sort of benevolent totalitarianism. Crime is dealt with swiftly and harshly, so there is very little of it, at least not anywhere people seem to care about. The justice system is a lot like the one in [b:The Minority Report|65018|Minority Report|Philip K. Dick|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1170626052s/65018.jpg|63086], except that instead of using a team of psychics to predict when crimes will occur, "Time Mariners" retrieve information from the future via a temporal gateway, and (theoretically) crimes are dealt with before they happen.

At the heart of the story is Clover Donovan, an autistic sixteen year-old girl who is cared for by her brother while their father works away from home (their mother died of the virus when Clover was an infant.) Clover is the best thing about the book, at least for the first half or so. I felt she was portrayed well by the author--realistic and likeable, even if she isn't always nice (although this is usually because she has trouble recognizing social cues and often misspeaks.) That's until her condition is revealed to be a gimmick which is never explained, and which comes off as a patronizing attempt to make autistic people feel special. We're eventually told that only autistics can travel through the time portal. At first I thought this meant that only they could cope with it mentally, but it turns out that only they can literally pass through it at all. Anyone else is held back, even somehow being pushed through and out of the submarine craft they travel in. So, only autistic people and objects can pass through? ...okay.

I thought the story was great in the beginning, but as I neared the end I came to like it less and less. It became obvious that there was no way the story was going to be completed by the end of the book. That revolution mentioned in the summary? It doesn't even get started until the last few chapters. Yes, I know it says "first in a new series" clearly on the front cover, but there is no kind of closure at all. Novels are not a serial medium. If you want to do that, write comics. I feel like I've gotten nothing out of reading this. Will I be rewarded in the second installment, or will I have to wait for the third?… (más)

It was a plague. It was the plague that wiped out most of the world's population. The United States is now fifty, small, walled cities, under the protection of the U.S. government and Waverly-Stead Company. Waverly-Stead saved everyone. Ned Waverly found a portal to two years in the future and from there brought back the cure. John Stead created it. Together they gave it to everyone and the world began again. It's a simple thing to stop by a corporate facility and get your daily booster shot; everyone even has ports implanted in the back of their necks so they don't need to suffer the pain of a needle.

Clover Donovan wants nothing more than to go to Waverly-Stead Academy. She's got the grades, she just has to make it through the interview. When the Academy meets her and her service dog, and realizes she's autistic, suddenly they don't want her anymore. But that's okay, because something bigger is waiting for Clover. She gets recruited by the Company to be one of those who travels through the portal to retrieve news and information. She'll get more money, more rations, and maybe she and her brother West can live a more comfortable life.

But things are not as simple as they seem. On a trip to the future, someone she's just met in the present gives Clover something to read. It's a zine and it tells her more than she ever knew about the Company and what they're really doing. Then the future brings bad, bad news for West and he, Clover, and their friends flee the walled town of Reno looking for the truth.

I adored this book. I read far later into the night than I should have while reading it. Clover, West, and their friends kept me interested, as did the plot and various subplots running through the story.

Regarding Autism and Autistic characters: I don't personally know anyone on the spectrum so I can't say for sure if the writing about Autism was accurate, but it was respectful and felt very real to me.

(ARC provided by publisher)… (más)