It's been a great day in writerville! This morning I found out SYNAPSE made the latest cut in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. They've whittled it down to 50 YA semifinalists out of 5,000 entries and, OMG, SYNAPSE is still in there.
Tonight I realized that semifinalists got Publishers Weekly reviews, too. Here mine. I like it!
ABNA Publishers Weekly Reviewer
Strong characters and a tight plot bring this victims-take-down-a-mad-scientist yarn to life. Eighteen-year-old Jake's twin brother, Gabriel, has been housed in a mental hospital since an accident at age nine damaged his brain. Tough, remorseless Amnesia is sentenced to death after killing a cashier in an armed robbery. Terra, a scientist who has discovered a revolutionary garbage-eating fungus, is unable to move or speak after an attack by her jealous and money-hungry employer, Dr. Burlington. That a sinister Dr. Ryder will be the thread connecting the three stories is telegraphed almost immediately, and so when she appears with a notepad (in Amnesia's case) and an “offer [Jake] can't refuse” (in the twins'), an ominous tension has already built. Mind-reading is Ryder's field, and details about electrical signals and virtual reality games make her work seem plausible. What results is a dramatic, high-stakes contest to see who can use the technology most to their own advantage: the “good guys,” communicating telepathically and extracting plans and pass-codes from their captors' minds, or Ryder and Burlington, listening in on the mental chatter and torturing those with whom their victims connect. A final battle rages on Kaho'olawe, a Hawaiian island littered with unexploded bombs, until every loose end is tied up. Excellent entertainment with provocative questions about science and the human brain.
Tonight I realized that semifinalists got Publishers Weekly reviews, too. Here mine. I like it!
ABNA Publishers Weekly Reviewer
Strong characters and a tight plot bring this victims-take-down-a-mad-scientist yarn to life. Eighteen-year-old Jake's twin brother, Gabriel, has been housed in a mental hospital since an accident at age nine damaged his brain. Tough, remorseless Amnesia is sentenced to death after killing a cashier in an armed robbery. Terra, a scientist who has discovered a revolutionary garbage-eating fungus, is unable to move or speak after an attack by her jealous and money-hungry employer, Dr. Burlington. That a sinister Dr. Ryder will be the thread connecting the three stories is telegraphed almost immediately, and so when she appears with a notepad (in Amnesia's case) and an “offer [Jake] can't refuse” (in the twins'), an ominous tension has already built. Mind-reading is Ryder's field, and details about electrical signals and virtual reality games make her work seem plausible. What results is a dramatic, high-stakes contest to see who can use the technology most to their own advantage: the “good guys,” communicating telepathically and extracting plans and pass-codes from their captors' minds, or Ryder and Burlington, listening in on the mental chatter and torturing those with whom their victims connect. A final battle rages on Kaho'olawe, a Hawaiian island littered with unexploded bombs, until every loose end is tied up. Excellent entertainment with provocative questions about science and the human brain.
