In the mid-21st century, a Texas teen tries to plan for the future, while around her, people struggle with extreme weather cycles and other threatsStevie, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is working in a museum gift shop and saving for college. She has healthy relationships with her family (although her parents are "fighting about the end of the world"), and she spends her free time developing her photography skills. One day, a new interning artist piques her interest: Adam says he's Indigenous from Costa Rica but doesn't offer any more information, leading Stevie to wonder if he's lying. But when she presses him, Adam says he's a time traveler from 2201, 150 years in the future, and that he needs her help stealing an important piece of art for him to save because her "world is about to implode." The story's strong pacing allows ample room to explore multiple themes, including people who pretend to be Indigenous, exploitation of people and natural resources, museums' retention of sacred ceremonial items, climate change and environmental devastation, and pandemics. Stevie is a complex character who's dealing with anxiety. Her adoptive father is Black, and her younger brother, Levi, is Black Cherokee; their identities offer room for Rogers to naturally explore racism both from white people and between marginalized communities. Stevie's closest friends bring additional diversity to the cast and help ground Stevie, offering her different perspectives on the world.Presents sharp social commentary folded into an all-too-believable dystopian setting.(Dystopian. 12-18)

Gr 7 Up— In the year 2052, Cherokee teenager Stevie is living in Texas and working at an art museum, trying to survive the increasingly volatile weather patterns and look out for her little brother Levi, who has a potentially fatal tree nut allergy. A new arrival at the museum, an Indigenous boy from Costa Rica named Adam who has an ambiguous background, brings with him a dire warning that Stevie doesn't want to believe at first, though it soon becomes clear that she has no choice. As a dystopian future bears down on them, Stevie must accept that Adam really is from the future; he's trying to save some Native art from the coming destruction, and she has an important role to play. Rogers adeptly creates an immediately compelling character in Stevie while also incorporating weighty but clear discussions of ethics in museum collections, climate change and its effect on our environment, racism between and within cultural groups, and the exploitation of Indigenous identities, among other themes. An exciting and intense plot combines with wonderfully realistic emotions as the story shifts from one of slow realization and acceptance to dystopia and uncertainty. VERDICT Enchanting and full of darkly prescient social commentary; a Cherokee dystopia with Afrofuturistic inspiration.— Allie Stevens