Overpowered

Gr 10 Up—Nica Ashley has traveled the world with her journalist mother for most of her 16 years, living in Thailand, India, Chile, and Tanzania. Now her mom insists that she needs stability and sends her to live with her father in Colorado. Everyone in Barrington is ridiculously happy and polite, the entire town seems to be sponsored by a mysterious local business called Bar Tech, and there is a nightly curfew. Classmate and heartthrob Jackson Winters seems to be the only other unhappy curfew breaker around but maybe that is due to his girlfriend's mysterious disappearance. Not living up to her self-proclaimed status as a loner, Nica also befriends Oliver (stereotype geek) and Maya (stereotype cheerleader). Nica, Jackson, Oliver, and Maya all experience extreme physical reactions to an energy "pulse," and these strange symptoms give them X-Men-type abilities. As they investigate the strange happenings, they come up against the ubiquitous Bar Tech security detail at every stage. The story is not resolved at the conclusion, opening up more questions rather than offering answers. The characters are largely unrealistic, constantly popping out with strange things that a teenager would never say or think (such as Oliver proclaiming that Nica gets "the gold ring" for a correct answer and Nica being able to name the precise make of a handgun because she "watches action movies"). Cringe-worthy phrases like "…as if his eyes had X-ray vision and could see right through me" make the romantic scenes brutal. The skeleton of Nica's story is marginally interesting, but Kruger's amateurish writing gets in the way too much for it to be enjoyed.—Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ