Author: Michael Carroll
Publisher: Philomel Books
Ten years ago, all of the superhumans disappeared and nobody seems to know why. The day that this happened is known now as Mystery Day, and it has become a day to kick back and relax for school kids and workers around the world.
Three young boys named Colin, Brian and Danny are walking home from school just before Mystery Day, when Brian’s little sister comes along to get some attention. She ends up in the middle of the road on her bike just as a bus is coming around the corner and out of nowhere, Danny somehow manages to save her from the crushing blow of the heavy vehicle.
This is, of course, the first discovery of the world of superhumans for Colin and Danny, with Brian being left out of the loop. Colin himself soon begins discovering powers of his own. This would be fantastic if it weren’t for the fact that this leads to the kidnapping of the boys and some of their family.
Meanwhile, a man named Joseph is taken from a secret prison to an unspecified location in which some kind of elaborate machine is being built and a young girl is just beginning to wake up.
Michael Carroll keeps the story coming fast and plot twists and turns are aplenty. He never takes the easy way out of a situation, and doesn’t let things move to the place that you expected them to go. The characterisation is extremely good. Despite their age, the kids in the story are smart without being unrealistically so.
I loved the fact that the characters never give up, and remain strong, yet are prone to self-doubt at times, just like anyone would be when faced with nearly impossible odds. Their ambiguity also allows for the reader to easily identify with them.
The pacing may seem odd at points, but it probably helps to keep a reader’s attention rather than hindering them. As the first chapter opens in a nice quiet town after a prologue with lots of action and tension, it tells the reader to never get comfortable with their surroundings from the get go.
One can easily find a lot of reasons to enjoy this book. I could analyse the book for messages for days, but I know that the those are just coming from me. Anyone can figure out something from this fine work of fiction, but the thing that’s most important about it is this: superhumans are totally awesome to read about!
I highly recommend this book and its sequels (if you live in a place where you can purchase the UK-published versions, The New Heroes). Check it out.
- Danielle Lavigne is a teenaged writer who resides in Dublin, Ireland. She is passionate about writing, art, style, and nearly all forms of media, particularly comic books. She hopes to one day make a decent living writing comics so as to avoid the long-prophecised "actual work".