Recruits

Gr 7 Up—Twins Sean and Dillon Kirrell are on the cusp of 18. The mysterious Carver moves in next door. Hardened, physically imposing, and gruff, he intimidates and intrigues the twins. Inside Carver's house, Sean and Dillon discover a portal to another dimension. Earth is merely a lonely outpost in a human-dominated galaxy that is ruled by powers yet incomprehensible to the brothers. While the premise is intriguing, the execution is weak. Despite the well-drawn imagery, exposition overwhelms every page, and perspectives switch constantly. Locke (a pseudonym for Davis Bunn) co-opts phrases from Star Wars and The Matrix; Carver describes the lowercase "force" as the energy surrounding them, there is an ominous "Empire" exercising control over the galaxy, and the twins are threatened with "mind-wiping" if they cannot successfully complete the training Carver has been sent to administer. Additionally, depictions of race and gender are problematic. Carver is confusingly depicted as "dark-complexioned, like he'd been blasted by some foreign sun for so long that his skin was permanently stained." Examiner Tirian, one of Carver's counterparts, is "tall and black, not normal African-American dark-skinned" and "angry." Though these portrayals are of non-Earth humans, they are clunky and perplexing. The main female character, Carey Havilland, is a "lyrical beauty," and readers first see her through the male gaze. The twins step into a heated argument between Carey and an ex-boyfriend; the confrontation predictably and troublingly ends with Dillon's violent punishment of the boy to save Carey, whom the author later refers to as a "damsel in distress."