November 1, 2009
Gr 7 Up-In this third book in the trilogy, the evil dictator is dead. Dante and Bea have been fighting him all along, but now it appears that Dante has crossed over to the evil side and when the dictator's replacement is announced, it is none other than Dante himself. The story is told alternately from Bea's point of view and then Dante's. Bea has her own fight on hand; from her, readers learn of the government's plan to get its citizens to eat a strange food for the "health benefits" it offers. It isn't long before the Big Brother elements become apparent to readers, who watch helplessly as the characters slowly realize what is going on. The science fiction and fantasy elements far outshine the horror aspects of this fascinating conglomerate of genre styles."Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2010
The muddled metaphysics of Dante and Bea's dystopia come together too late in this series ender (The Hollow People, The Cracked Mirror). Dante turns into a bird, Bea leads the rebel Puca, and the dead are being resurrected for evil. The story's conclusion is frustrating after all the effort made by readers getting through the trilogy.
(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)