Nil Unlocked

Gr 9 Up—Rives watches as his close friends Charley and Thad disappear, hopefully to safety. Every teenager deposited unwillingly on the island of Nil needs to catch an unpredictable outbound "gate" (shimmering wall of hot air) within a year of their arrival, or they will die. Now, Rives is Leader and feels the weight of responsibility. Skye's father's obsession with finding Nil started when his twin, Scott, was taken and then died not long after his return. When Skye meets Charley back in the United States and hears Charley's story, she knows Nil is real. Skye and her father travel to the South Pacific, where he suspects the island is located. When Skye irrationally follows a native boy through a gate, she, too, ends up on Nil. Skye and Rives are determined to unlock Nil's secret, lead a mass exodus from the nightmare, and maybe, take down the island altogether. Readers starting with this book will feel a little lost and cheated to have missed Charley and Thad's story in Nil (Holt, 2014). However, Rives and Skye's narratives will ensnare readers quickly. The island setting is akin to William Golding's Lord of the Flies, but the story of teens working together to escape will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner (Delacorte, 2009).