In a world filled with people possessing fantastic powers, 15-year-old Al\u00e9 Arag\u00f3n was once deemed a Deficient, lacking an \u201caccelerated ability\u201d that many others have. But he survived a brutal fight, marking him as a Feral, a designation that means his ability\u2014to come back from the dead\u2014is outside the Common Six (such as the telekinesis practiced by \u201cMind Movers\u201d). People now treat him almost as poorly as when he was a Deficient. Al\u00e9 attends an assignation ceremony in which the prefectural governor announces the career paths that academy students like Al\u00e9 will take. He trains to be part of the classified Blue Stars intelligence unit; because he can\u2019t reveal specifics (\u201cAll affairs of the Blue Stars are kept private, for security purposes\u201d), he\u2019s effectively isolated from his comrades, including his best friend, Yalamba (who\u2019s also a Feral; her drawings come to life). Al\u00e9 excels in his training, despite the occasional malfunctioning equipment during simulations. Could this be attempted sabotage? In this tautly written tale, Solis tackles themes of bigotry: While Al\u00e9, who\u2019s queer, receives no hate for his sexual orientation, others act as if his \u201cpassive\u201d ability makes him worthless. The story\u2019s symbolism is sometimes a bit on the surface\u2014Al\u00e9 had been \u201cmisclassified\u201d for years. Still, the animosity thrown at him is heartbreakingly realistic as the loathsome attitudes of his father and brothers fracture the family. Al\u00e9\u2019s entanglement in something shady deepens as the narrative rolls along, with each scene seeming to deliver a new surprise and someone else Al\u00e9 must keep an eye on, for reasons of suspicion or concern. Al\u00e9 is an easy protagonist to root for\u2014he\u2019s smart and resourceful, and he doesn\u2019t let his mistakes completely derail him. His doggedness leads him to some startling revelations, a nerve-wracking confrontation, and an ending that will surely leave readers eager for the next installment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a world filled with people possessing fantastic powers, 15-year-old Al\u00e9 Arag\u00f3n was once deemed a Deficient, lacking an \u201caccelerated ability\u201d that many others have. But he survived a brutal fight, marking him as a Feral, a designation that means his ability\u2014to come back from the dead\u2014is outside the Common Six (such as the telekinesis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}