In a far future with quantum communication and teleportation, something goes terribly wrong.After 6 years apart, it's time for 17-year-old Jessica to be reunited with her parents-but at the cost of her life on Earth, as instead of coming home, her parents are making her join them on their interstellar scientific mission on a distant, post-extinction–event world. The teleportation technology destroys the original body and prints a new one at the other end, but when Jessica wakes up expecting to be in orbit, it's obvious things have gone horribly, violently, lethally awry. Readers explore the mystery as Jessica tries to solve it-and survive-in alternating "before" and "after" chapters. The dual timelines cover both what happened on the ship (deliciously ominous, considering readers know what's coming) and her struggles on the strange planet as well as the physical and emotional implications of the disaster. The expertly juggled storyline nurtures a tension that blossoms into a palpable sense of dread as the downright spooky nature of the disaster is explored. Themes of identity hit hard, as they come with high stakes. The conclusion results in an open-ended yet satisfying stand-alone novel, though the future setting is well developed enough that readers will hope for more. Though some characters have names that signal ethnic diversity in the supporting cast, most lack physical descriptors and default to White.An intense, read-in-one-sitting kind of ride. (Science fiction. 12-18)

In a far future with quantum communication and teleportation, something goes terribly wrong.After 6 years apart, it's time for 17-year-old Jessica to be reunited with her parents-but at the cost of her life on Earth, as instead of coming home, her parents are making her join them on their interstellar scientific mission on a distant, post-extinction–event world. The teleportation technology destroys the original body and prints a new one at the other end, but when Jessica wakes up expecting to be in orbit, it's obvious things have gone horribly, violently, lethally awry. Readers explore the mystery as Jessica tries to solve it-and survive-in alternating "before" and "after" chapters. The dual timelines cover both what happened on the ship (deliciously ominous, considering readers know what's coming) and her struggles on the strange planet as well as the physical and emotional implications of the disaster. The expertly juggled storyline nurtures a tension that blossoms into a palpable sense of dread as the downright spooky nature of the disaster is explored. Themes of identity hit hard, as they come with high stakes. The conclusion results in an open-ended yet satisfying stand-alone novel, though the future setting is well developed enough that readers will hope for more. Though some characters have names that signal ethnic diversity in the supporting cast, most lack physical descriptors and default to White.An intense, read-in-one-sitting kind of ride. (Science fiction. 12-18)

Gr 9 Up— Jessica Mathers is leaving her life and friends behind, whether she likes it or not, to join her parents on a research mission 14 light years away. But when Jessica wakes up from teleportation—a process where you are scanned and then printed at your destination—she is not on the space station where she was meant to reunite with her parents. Instead, she is in an empty lander crashed on alien soil. Outside is a trail of blood, four freshly dug graves, and someone she could never have expected. Jessica will have to untangle the truths of a terrible disaster and fight to survive a planet with its own dangerous secrets. Chilling and tense, this is a story of deadly unknowns and heart-pounding survival that challenges questions of what makes us who we are. Told in chapters that alternate events before and after the mysterious disaster, the book's pacing and revelations keep readers guessing to the very end. Jessica is a smart and compelling character, deeply sympathetic as she grapples with how little say she has in her own life. Even the small characters feel richly conceived, with interesting back stories lurking just beyond the page. Some readers will be justifiably frustrated with fuzzy or unresolved plot points, but Kirby creates a world that feels both foreign and immediate, pushing readers to examine how much they really understand about the universe. VERDICT An excellent purchase for fans of tense survival, fast-paced horror, and classic science fiction.— Amy Diegelman