The Waning Age
Author: S. E. Grove
Publisher: Viking
Publication date: February 2019
Natalia Peña, also known as Nat, has been emotionless for years. That’s as it should be; most kids in her generation “wane” around the age of 10 or 11. Her kid brother, Calvino, is different. No one knows why, but he hasn’t waned yet. He still has all of his emotions and they aren’t going away. Nat isn’t supposed to love him - she has waned. But when he is kidnapped by RealCorp, which sells “drops” that can make people feel emotions again, she will do anything to get him back, and not just because it is the logical thing to do. It turns out that Natalia loves Calvino. In pursuit of her brother, Nat faces Fish, the equivalent of sadists, except that they are unable to take pleasure out of the terror and pain they inflict. To find Calvino, she has to get help from an unlikely source - someone so desperate for real emotion that he’d kill for it. Nat gradually realizes that in a world deprived of emotion, her emotions and the ones of the people around her are something precious she must rediscover and understand.
S. E. Grove’s novel explores the differences between instinct, reason, and emotion, and the surprisingly difficult challenge of determining which is which. Striking, well-written, and engaging, The Waning Age is a great pick for middle grade and young adult readers who savor daring characters in a thought-provoking alternate reality. I wouldn’t call this book a mind-bender, but there are creative ideas in the story that adults may also find engaging.
D. K. Nuray, age 12
No comments:
Post a Comment