Starting with the admission that this is a confession of a crime and he was the perpetrator, Hemingway Jones, a gifted student with no interest in his gifts or education, explains how everything went terribly wrong. After an afternoon of skipping school and getting high with his friend Todd, Hemingway is picked up by a father who, stormy and disapproving, makes Hemingway drive. When their truck goes off the road, Hemingway's father is killed. Luckily (or maybe not), Hemingway has an internship at a questionable biotech firm called Lifebank, and he intends to use his attending doctor's research on therapeutic hypothermia to revive his dad. In the process, he gets arrested and becomes a news story d then things start to get weird. There's a persistent feeling of dread throughout Hemingway's tale, from the car accident all the way through to the end. It's a chilling thriller that may creep too far under the skin for the average reader. Recommend to those not faint of heart.

A Frankenstein-style plot narrated by a teenage genius with an attitude.Seventeen-year-old snarky genius Hemingway Jones may be a rebel, but after being pushed by his father, he lands an internship at Lifebank, a well-funded cryogenic lab in North Carolina. Hem would rather be smoking pot; instead, he's wheeling around dead bodies for some truly sketchy scientific studies on reanimation. After his father dies in a car accident caused by Hem's driving while stoned, a desperate Hem-whose mom died two years ago-reanimates him. Under scrutiny from the police, Hem is coerced into working for Lifebank. He enters their vortex of research horror, reluctantly participating in gory and tortuous medical exploitation. Hem has a knack for inspiring loyalty from others while simultaneously betraying their trust. The novel pulls no punches while establishing his sarcastic voice and manipulative personality; Hem often treats others in unethical ways while still believing in his own ethical superiority. Teens may relate to his defiant approach to authority, though they may also feel uncomfortable about the inappropriate sexual innuendo between him and adult women, his fatphobic remarks, some stereotypical cuing of Black characters, and other content that is not unpacked. The accessible writing and fast pace have reader appeal, however. Main characters read white; the town is racially and socioeconomically divided.An action-packed, suspenseful romp through life and death featuring some problematic representation. (Speculative fiction. 15-18)

Hannon explores themes of guilt and grief against the backdrop of an eerie cryogenic laboratory in this Frankenstein-leaning sci-fi adventure. Seventeen-year-old Hemingway Jones has once again been caught skipping his prestigious internship at Lifebank, a cryogenics lab in North Carolina for which he carts corpses to eccentric scientists performing intricate experiments. But the internship doesn’t matter to Hem, who’s only doing it because his father is forcing him to. When he gets into a car accident while driving stoned, resulting in his father’s death, Hem is desperate to save him. He smuggles his father’s body into Lifebank and begins replicating the scientists’ work to bring him back to life. Eventually, he’s able to revive his father—though the being before him has ashen gray skin, can’t survive in temperatures above 55 °F, must subsist on hydrogen sulfide, and has somehow developed supernatural powers, including telekinesis. Hem’s acerbic personality and tendency to mock the intersectionally diverse supporting cast bogs down a strong start. Intriguing conversations surrounding morality and ethics, offered alongside viscerally described scenes of gory scientific experimentation, add depth to this uneven debut. Ages 13–up. (Sept.)