Starred Review Four seniors try to escape personal traumas in the face of daily bomb threats at their high school. But who is behind the threats? King's newest novel crawls through the psyches of these teens seemingly in pursuit of this question, but quickly turns up many others, as well as answers to important questions that have gone unasked. At the center of the story is Stanzi, a biology genius who feels split in two and is forced on family "vacations" to sites of school shootings: "I own the most morbid snow globe collection in the world." She is in love with Gustav, a physics genius (natch) busy building an invisible helicopter. China Knowles, meanwhile, has swallowed herself after a terrible experience with her boyfriend, becoming a "walking digestive system." And Lansdale Cruise is a beautiful, pathological liar with long hair that grows like Pinocchio's nose. Characters unfold like riddles before the reader, while King uses magical realism and a motif of standardized testing to emphasize the flaw in obtaining answers without confronting reality's hard questions. Beautiful prose, poetry, and surreal imagery combine for an utterly original story that urges readers to question, love, and believe risk explosion.

Gr 9 Up-One character is building a helicopter that happens to be invisible. Another has turned herself into a walking digestive tract. The others are wrapped up in hair that grows with lies and a lab coat that can't be removed. Under the weight of their personal lives and the constant pressure of testing and bomb threats, four high school students crawl through a world that seems to threaten them at every turn. King has crafted a universe within these pages full of surrealist characters and twists—inside-out humans and escapes to locations that may or may not be real. She achieves a fine, delicate balance through her gutting prose and ensemble cast of hurt-filled characters. The broken feeling of the protagonists carries through the length of the book, yet the ending still concludes with a tone of redemption. At once a statement on the culture of modern schools as well as mental health issues, this novel is an ambitious, haunting work of art. VERDICT Give it to students who are ready for a darker version of Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me (Random, 2009).— Erinn Black Salge, Saint Peter's Prep, Jersey City, NJ