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_When Jake’s twin brother, Gabriel, is left severely brain damaged by a near drowning accident, Jake is convinced it’s his fault. Every Sunday for nine years, Jake visits Gabriel at the institution. At the point when Jake has lost hope that his brother even knows he's there, Dr. Ryder arrives on the scene. “Your brother might still be thinking and feeling, trapped inside an unresponsive body,” she says. “I could set him free.”
What Jake doesn't know is that Dr. Ryder is not driven by a desire to help the mentally disabled. She's motivated by the need to extract a lucrative secret from the brain of Terra O'Hare, a formerly brilliant scientist who suffered a near drowning "accident" very similar to Gabriel's. Dr. Ryder hopes to use what she learns from Jake and Gabriel's twin brains to get into Terra's.
Dr. Ryder has experimented before. Amnesia is one of her few surviving patients. With street smarts and a tough exterior Amnesia escapes from Dr. Ryder's death row laboratory and becomes a powerful force in the mission to save Jake, Gabriel, and Terra from certain death.
Synapse takes actual research in neurological science, and plays what-if with the idea that there can be a good and a bad side to pushing science to its limits. The novel is told from three different points of view - Jake's, Terra's, and Amnesia's. Starting separately, the stories become inexorably entwined as the tension builds.
The cover illustration and design is by the talented and wonderful children's illustrator and writer, Siri Weber Feeney. Check out the other illustration covers she's done!
And I love what Siri says about Synapse on her site, as well:
"It was such a treat to do this project. How often does a cover artist/designer get to read the whole book before starting — plus admire the writing?
Dawn is a gifted writer and in this book, she juggles three very diverse POVs like it was something natural she could do at birth. So, while the plot whips you through the book, it's the people that stick in your mind long after you're done reading.
I felt I knew Jake and, having a teenager of my own, I certainly had a good idea of the look he'd give to the world. I thought his stare would be a challenge to the viewer and that it would show up even when the cover was a tiny thumbnail on the screen."
What Jake doesn't know is that Dr. Ryder is not driven by a desire to help the mentally disabled. She's motivated by the need to extract a lucrative secret from the brain of Terra O'Hare, a formerly brilliant scientist who suffered a near drowning "accident" very similar to Gabriel's. Dr. Ryder hopes to use what she learns from Jake and Gabriel's twin brains to get into Terra's.
Dr. Ryder has experimented before. Amnesia is one of her few surviving patients. With street smarts and a tough exterior Amnesia escapes from Dr. Ryder's death row laboratory and becomes a powerful force in the mission to save Jake, Gabriel, and Terra from certain death.
Synapse takes actual research in neurological science, and plays what-if with the idea that there can be a good and a bad side to pushing science to its limits. The novel is told from three different points of view - Jake's, Terra's, and Amnesia's. Starting separately, the stories become inexorably entwined as the tension builds.
The cover illustration and design is by the talented and wonderful children's illustrator and writer, Siri Weber Feeney. Check out the other illustration covers she's done!
And I love what Siri says about Synapse on her site, as well:
"It was such a treat to do this project. How often does a cover artist/designer get to read the whole book before starting — plus admire the writing?
Dawn is a gifted writer and in this book, she juggles three very diverse POVs like it was something natural she could do at birth. So, while the plot whips you through the book, it's the people that stick in your mind long after you're done reading.
I felt I knew Jake and, having a teenager of my own, I certainly had a good idea of the look he'd give to the world. I thought his stare would be a challenge to the viewer and that it would show up even when the cover was a tiny thumbnail on the screen."
