ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

The U.S is in a state of panic: a lethal flu virus has become a pandemic, and international conspiracy theories abound. Emily Bird, whose absent parents are scientists for the CIA, watches as her city of Washington, D.C., her elite private high school, and even her own home are quarantined. And while her community and the rest of the country fall into a tailspin, Bird has a much closer danger at hand: Roosevelt Davis, a homeland security agent, is threatening her and Coffee, the drug-dealing son of a Brazilian diplomat, to whom Bird has a moth-to-the-flame kind of attraction. What Bird knows about the virus what Roosevelt thinks she knows d what Coffee has done threaten their well-being more than any virus could. And somehow amid all the peril, Bird finds a self-awareness that has laid dormant her entire life. Johnson (The Summer Prince, 2013) has once again crafted a consuming story, this time intertwining politics, medicine, the idiosyncrasies of family and friendship ties, and one potentially fatal attraction. Riveting in both its pacing and plausibility.

Horn Book

The near-future United States has been hit by a flu pandemic, thought to be an act of terrorism. When Emily Bird wakes up from a coma after attending a strange government party, she doesn't know what secrets she has hidden from herself, or whom she can trust. Johnson combines evocative writing with the plot of a suspenseful thriller in her engaging character-driven novel.

Publishers Weekly (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Emily Bird knows what she-s supposed to do: graduate from her posh Washington, D.C., prep school; attend an Ivy League school; hold onto her appropriate boyfriend; keep her too-kinky hair chemically tamed; and assume her place among the elite. But a flu pandemic, which may be bioterrorism, means drones, tanks, quarantines, and more work for Emily-s parents-government scientists so busy that they don-t come home when Emily ends up in the hospital. That-s where Johnson-s story starts, with Emily under government observation, wondering whom to trust, and trying to figure out whether she-s ready to quit being good-girl Emily and become independent Bird. Johnson (The Summer Prince) blends high school drama, cloak-and-dagger intrigue, race and class inequities, coming of age, and a passionate love story, blending these disparate elements into a narrative that both requires and repays attention. Watching Bird make her way through a world filled with dangers-biological, political, personal-and find not just love, but also herself, makes for rewarding reading. Ages 14-up. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. (Sept.)

School Library Journal (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gr 10 Up-Her mother calls her Emily, but she calls herself by her last name, Bird, and so does Alonso, known as Coffee, the strangely compelling drug-dealer and diplomat's son who attends Bird's private Washington, DC, school. When Bird wakes up after eight days in a coma to discover she was drugged at a party and left with no memory of what happened, she turns to Coffee for helpeven though the authorities, including the mysterious Roosevelt, insist that he was the one who poisoned her. But Emily suspects that Roosevelt, her boyfriend Paul, and possibly even her scientist parents are involved in a conspiracy: a conspiracy that is connected to the Venezuelan flu, a virus planted by terrorists that is currently killing hundreds of thousand around the globe. The author of The Summer Prince (Scholastic, 2013) writes beautifully, but the convoluted premise can be tough to swallow, and the lyrical quality of her writing does not always mesh with the high-octane plot. The story is strongest when following Bird, a self-described "assimilated" DC black girl, as she tries to stay true to herself amid not only the terror of the quarantine, but also the restrictive expectations and assumptions of her family and classmates. Teens looking for a fast-paced tale with diverse characters will find it in Johnson's latest offering. Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA