Tunnel Vision by Susan Shaw

Liza is just trying to get home. All she has to do is walk through the train underpass to meet her mom, but there’s a group of men in her way. They make her uncomfortable, but she decides to suck it up and make her way through. But moments later, everything goes wrong, and her mom is shot. And when Liza learns that she may have been the intended target, she knows nothing will ever be the same again. Still reeling from the tragedy of losing her mother, Liza is reluctant to leave everything behind to enter the witness protection program with her father, even though a new identity in a new place may be her only chance for safety. But even with moving from place to place, Liza knows that her mother’s killer is hot on her trail and that it’s only a matter of time before someone recognizes her and all hell breaks loose. How did she get in this mess in the first place? Liza desperately wants to know why she, of all people, is being forced to run, but in order to find out, she’ll need to stay alive.

Tunnel Vision is a story that is just packed full of questions and non-stop action. Now, I do like a healthy dose of action in my books, to keep me excited about reading, as well as questions to keep me interested, but it’s rather unsatisfying when the book is only about action and questions. Unfortunately, in Tunnel Vision, Shaw’s character and plot development left much to be desired. I found it quite difficult to relate to and care about protagonist Liza; there was something off about her that made her feel not very realistic. The fact that readers really only see her immediately before her mother is shot and in the wake of the tragedy doesn’t help either. I was told that Liza’s life was very different, as having to enter the witness protection programs should be, but I couldn’t see those changes in Liza’s character. My interest in this story was further dulled by a plot that was rather uninteresting, despite the constant atmosphere of danger. Liza and her father just keep moving around, spook at the slightest things, and receive help from possibly corrupt government agents. This would have been forgivable had the ending been particularly spectacular or clever, but sadly, the conclusion to this story was frankly lackluster and anticlimactic.

Though I didn’t find this novel a particularly enjoyable read, Tunnel Vision may still be enjoyed by fans of The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan and Severed Ties by Kevin Krohn.

Rating: 2.25

Review copy from Simon & Schuster Galley Grab

The Seven Rays by Jessica Bendinger

Beth Michaels might be going crazy. One day she’s perfectly normal, and the next, she starts seeing these strange pink dots everywhere. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even stop there. Ropes, chains, and disgusting black gunk show up on virtually every person she sees, as well as glimpses into a people’s minds, memories, secrets, and fears if she looks at someone for too long. But even though other people think Beth is crazy too, the thing is, she might not be. Because along with this strange new vision, Beth also starts receiving gold envelopes with mysterious message, envelopes Beth soon finds out she’s been receiving her whole life but hasn’t been aware of until now. The first message Beth gets says “You are more than you think you are.” And as Beth soon finds out, that’s probably true.

The Seven Rays is one confusing jumbled mix mash of too many things at once. Yes, there are paranormal occurrences, lots of them in fact, the period of doubting sanity, and romance, among other things. That’s precisely the problem with this book. Bendinger tries to include way too many things into her debut novel that the story loses its sense of purpose. On one hand, Beth has normal everyday problems with her mother and best friend. On the other, there’s this romance with Beth and Richie. Then, on an imaginary third hand, there’s all that supernatural stuff. It’s this imaginary third hand that screws this book up the most. There’s just so much about destiny and special skills as well as some kind of special prophecy or organization that’s never adequately explained that floods the story in the worst possible way. This is the kind of novel where I really wonder how it got published considering the story is such a mess. Is it because Bendinger is a moderately well known screenwriter? If that’s so, I think Bendinger better stick to that.

The Seven Rays may be enjoyed by fans of Swoon by Nina Malkin and The Hollow by Jessica Verday. I doubt I will read any sequel to this novel.

Rating: 2.0

Review copy from Amazon Vine

The Clone Codes by Frederick L., John, and Patricia C. McKissack

The Cyborg Wars have ended, and Earth has continued to exist in peace—at least in theory. The year is 2170, and cyborgs and clones are treated like second class citizens, if they’re treated as people at all. This is thirteen-year-old Leanna’s world, and like most other people living in it, she has grown up with the prejudices against cyborgs and clones. But Leanna is in for a rude awakening when her mother is arrested for being a member of the radical Liberty Bell Movement, an underground organization intent on establishing rights for cyborgs and clones. When a bounty is placed on her own head, Leanna is forced to flee, seeking shelter from the very people she used to hate, cyborgs, clones, and people who support them. With danger looming around every corner and startling revelations about her true identity threatening to tear her apart, Leanna must find out for herself which side she belongs to in this ongoing struggle, and how far she will go to fight.

I am disappointed to say that reading The Clone Codes was a poor experience for me. While I find many of the concepts presented in this novel interesting and relevant, its development in The Clone Codes was frankly unsatisfactory. Starting with characters, young protagonist Leanna is flat and uninteresting. She merely reacts to all the external events taking place around her, and if she was taken out of them, I highly doubt she would have a personality. The plot, though it may in fact be the strongest point of this novel, is none too exciting either. I don’t think I would be overstating things to summarize the story as Leanna alternately running and waiting, with a few moments of actual thought on her part. What I find most disturbing about this novel does not lie in the story itself, but in the fact versus fiction section in the back, which details several historical events and how they were incorporated into The Clone Codes. The basis for the existence of clones in this story is accredited to the Supreme Court ruling in the Diamond v. Chakrabarty case. The McKissacks used this ruling to prove that living organisms may be owned, such as the clones in this story. This is in fact not true; the 1980 case ruled that living organisms, or their genetic code in particular, may be patented. Whether this was just a small oversight, it is nonetheless a misinterpretation of a historical event, possibly manipulated to serve the creative purposes of this novel. And unfortunately, this inaccuracy pretty much discredited the entire work for me, especially because so much of the story was meant to be explained by it.

Other less discriminating readers (and I do not mean this in the sense of prejudice) may enjoy this novel, especially those who liked Skinned by Robin Wasserman. I however find it very unlikely I will follow the rest of this story.

Rating: 1.5

Review copies from publisher Scholastic and Amazon Vine