The Unquiet

June 15, 2015
Two identical Earths have orbited each other “for as long as anyone can remember,” but Earth II and its people are beginning to disappear. Lirael, kidnapped from the second Earth as a child, has been ruthlessly trained as an assassin with one purpose: kill and replace her alternate self, paving the way for others to move from the dying Earth to the one that remains. Lirael quickly learns not to trust anyone, especially not the vicious Madame who runs the shadowy cottages where they train. After a brutal graduation ceremony, Lirael is finally ready to take her double’s place, but it isn’t easy to act like the innocent girl she could have been. Worse, she discovers that the other children from the cottages have a plan that might put all of them in jeopardy. First-time author Everett gives this story a dreamlike quality even amid the frequent violence. The chronology is surprisingly wide, but Everett never loses sight of Lirael as a character, and that continuity is key to the book’s success in its exploration of identity and self. Ages 14–up. Agent: Alison Fargis, Stonesong.

June 15, 2015
At age 6, Lira was plucked from an orphanage and sent to a duplicate of Earth, with one crucial difference: unlike her current planet, that Earth is not disappearing, along with all the life it contains. Each person on each Earth has a counterpart on the other, an alternate. Facing extinction, Lira's world sends children to the other Earth, where they're hidden and trained to kill and replace their alternates and then, in sleeper cells, assist the stealth invasion. Secreted in rural France, first in underground bunkers then in cottages in the care of a brutal overseer, Lira's cohort must take pills daily to tolerate extraterrestrial conditions. Trained in combat, taught to mistrust one another, the survivors, like Lira, become "sleepers," stepping undetected into the family lives of their dead alternates. Despite growing affection for her new grandparents and sister, Lira drugs them to sleep when she carries out her handler's orders at night. The premise goes largely undeveloped, and key events go undescribed. Living with her new family, Lira never wonders about her original one as she follows orders with glum detachment. Her vague, elegiac musings lack focus. Simple vocabulary and syntax notwithstanding, generic settings, confusing chronology, and inconsistent plot and characterization make this anything but an easy read. Awkward images ("the first whimper of sunrise")-pathetic fallacies especially ("a group of fireflies sidles past")-don't help. Unsatisfying and not recommended. (Science fiction. 14-18)

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July 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-There have always been two Earths with identical versions of every city, place, and person. However, people from the second Earth are beginning to disappear. Out of fear and paranoia, the two Earths agree to shut themselves off from each other, ostensibly to regroup and find a mutual solution. But the second Earth has already taken steps to ensure its survival. During this self-imposed Silence, it begins replacing versions of people from Earth One with sleeper-assassins meant to take the place of their doubles and await the coming war. Fourteen-year-old Lira is one of them. She has trained since she was six to become the Lira of Earth One and live with her grandparents and younger sister, carrying out clandestine missions and assignments until the time comes for her to strike. She is cold, ruthless, and determined to be the perfect soldier. This debut novel's pacing is uneven. Too much time is spent setting up characters and motivations without significant forward movement in the plot. The denouement feels like an extended epilogue. An intriguing premise and the well-developed protagonists are this novel's strengths, though Lira doesn't take an active part in the events around her. She seems content to constantly wait, and the pacing suffers for it. Also, the many repetitive scenes add nothing new to drive the story forward. This title will find its audience, but the lack of balanced structure and action makes it less gripping than most sci-fi works. VERDICT A work with much potential that ultimately fails to live up to it.-Erik Knapp, Davis Library, Plano, TX

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