Winter White: A Modern Retelling of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, by Annie Cardi

Pia and her brother Max live off the grid in rural Maine with their father.  The highlight of Pia's life in the semi-annual trips that she gets to take into town with her father.  Otherwise, both Pia and Max are kept at home and not allowed to see other people.  

But when an accident happens and father is not able to do his various chores, he reluctantly allows Pia to take the truck and run deliveries of eggs and wool for him into town.  Quickly, Pia begins to understand that the deliveries are not really farm products.  Dad's running a lab and supplying the local junkies with Fentanyl.  And if they are surviving on the proceeds of drug production, she starts to wonder what else he is hiding from them.

At the same time she makes these discoveries, the trips into town help her meet a few local young people and befriend them.  While her father's warnings to stay away from strangers ring in her ears, her curiosity about other young people override her raising.  And when she meets a boy named Felix, it sparks recognition of a past that has been locked away in her mind for the past ten years.

While described as a "retelling" of Shakespeare, there is only a thin connection between this novel and the play.  It might be better described as being inspired by the story.  Character names are similar and the idea of past events coming to affect the present is part of both stories.  But the settings, the situations, and the lack of a comedic angle in the novel to match the play's second half make this a very different story.  Even the miracle ending (so famous in the play) is only a passing aside in this book.  I'd have hardly drawn the connection without having it called out.

But in the end, none of this really matters.  This is a good story with a strong protagonists, an interesting love interest, very tense family setting, and enough impending dread to keep the pages turning, especially towards the end.  I enjoyed it all.

All We Once Had, by Katy Upperman

Three years ago, Piper and Henry shared a moment at the apartment pool one night.  It was a magical moment that did not repeat.  Henry was at the end of a short visit to see his Dad and the next day, he was gone.  Piper thought she'd never see him again, but now Henry has returned to town.

He's come back with some emotional baggage.  A bad breakup and trouble at home has led his mother to shipping him to his Dad for the summer.  Dad's a wild guy, running a local sports bar and quick to offer everyone a drink and partake alongside them.  He's the opposite of responsible parenting, but Henry doesn't need much parenting -- he's straight edge and preparing himself for entering West Point.  He just needs to get his head on straight.

The situation could not be any more different for Piper and her older sister Tati, who was forced six years ago to become Piper's guardian after the death of their parents.  Tati overcompensates for the lack of their parents by running a strict house.  Piper responds to this by acting up and sparring constantly with her sister.

Opposites attract though as everyone learns to straighten out their lives and live happily ever after.  The overly rosy happy ending ties up every a bit too neatly and detracts from an actually good story about forgiveness and moving on.  I cringed a bit when the Henry's Dad and Tati started dating and Henry himself was a bit too squeaky clean for me.  But if you like awkward parental dating and perfect boyfriends, you'll swoon for this story!  That's being a bit unfair though as there is a fair amount of substance here, just in a pretty safe for younger teens way.

Reason We Break, by Jesmeen Kaur Deo

Rajan is back home on probation after a stint in juvie for a variety of crimes including murder, committed when he was a member of the Lion's Share -- a local Indo-Chinese gang.  Now that he's back, his probation officer wants to keep him away from his gangbanger friends.  Part of that is getting him through school, which will be a challenge because Rajan has always struggled with math.

Simran's an overachiever, brilliant at school, and a volunteer at a local outreach that helps people on probation. She gets assigned to help Rajan with his studies.  She already knows Rajan from school, but mostly from reputation.  And she has a sense that Rajan is not as bad as they say.  Always a bit of a softie for charity cases, she's committed to saving him -- a decision that scandalizes her friends and their Sikh community.  Even casually associating with Rajan could ruin her reputation.  Rajan, they say, is nothing but trouble.  Rajan's definitely in plenty of trouble.  He owes money and has no way to come up with it in time to save himself.  There's not a lot of space here for romance.  

So far, so West Side Story...but Simran has an unexpected trick up her sleeve. The gang needs someone with math skills and Simran might just have what they need.  Without Rajan's knowledge she offers her skills to the gang to free Rajan of his obligations.  But doing so will cost her much more than she realizes.  And by the time Rajan realizes what she's done, it's too late and it has dragged them both into the middle of a gang war.

Good girl bad boy hookups are fun stuff and the Romeo and Juliet doomed romance is classic, but when the honors student turns out to have the negotiating skills of a Corleone, things start to get really interesting.  It's a premise that sounds really implausible on its face, but within the novel it works really well.  And full of the color of its setting within the Canadian Sikh community, this is a really distinctive story.

The Glass Girl, by Kathleen Glasgow

Bella knows how to party.  And she's great with her friends on a Friday night.  But she also likes to drink at home.  It mellows her out and smooths out the edges.  Given her excellent grades, being good at helping her parents, and a fantastic older sister, Bella figures she has it all under control.  Her Dad drinks plenty and her grandmother used to actually give her glasses of wine.  She's not addicted and she has it all under control.  Under control, that is, until she starts having black outs and ends up almost dead on her own front porch.

Involuntarily sent to rehab by her parents, she has to confront a host of demons that have brought her down to this point.  It's hard going as she sorts out her family's attitude towards alcohol, her poor coping strategies, and her resistance to seeking help.  There are small victories, but she keeps making mistakes, suffering one relapse after another, and discovering that the path to sobriety and healthy living is a lifetime journey.

At nearly 450 pages, this is a long read.  And while the pacing is sometimes off (the pre-rehab material has a really slow start while the post-rehab stuff went by far too quickly), it's hard to identify anything that could have been effectively cut.  This is a very thorough story and well-told.  Bella's addiction and the reasons for it are clear and the obstacles she faces equally straightforward.  Whether you want to read such a detailed story of alcoholism is another matter, but if watching Bella hit rock bottom and pull herself out feeds an emotional need for a story of redemption, then this is a pretty good read.  And no, there's no conclusive happy ending here.  By the last pages, we can see that Bella has made progress but backsliding is just a page away and nothing in the book suggests that Bella's life will be happily ever after.  That felt right.

The Reappearance of Rachel Price, by Holly Jackson

For most of her life, Bel has lived without her Mom and without knowing what happened to her.  When she was only two years old, Rachel Price was abducted and baby Bel was left abandoned in their car.  The mystery was never solved and Rachel was eventually presumed dead by most people (although never declared so).  Now, a documentary film crew is working on the story, interviewing the family and digging up a lot of memories.

One night, in the midst of all the interviews, Rachel Price appears on their doorstep.  It comes out that she has been kept alive but imprisoned by an unknown stranger for the past sixteen years.  The family cautiously rejoices in Rachel's return, but things don't quite sit right with Bel.  In the next few weeks, Bel keeps finding inconsistencies in her mother's story.  The rest of the family is acting strange as well.  The deeper Bel digs, the more it becomes clear that the real story of Rachel's absence is far more complicated that anyone is admitting.

A very long whodunit with one twist after another -- and at least one or two twists too many.  There's a very good build up to the story over the first 300 or so pages, but it just keeps going and going, with each new plot twist becoming just a bit less plausible than the last one.  This undermines the really nice sleuthing in the beginning as the story becomes increasingly unrealistic.  By the end, I gave up and just rode along to see when this would all stop.  It was ultimately disappointing, and I am surprised by how popular the book is.

Lying About Last Summer, by Sue Wallman

Still grieving a year after the tragic and violent death of her older sister, Skye gets sent to a summer program for grieving teens.  There she meets others who have lost loved ones and explores their shared experiences.  The story gets spiced up when Skye suddenly starts to receive text messages from her dead sister.  Someone has hacked her sister's accounts, but who would do such a thing?  Given the timing, she suspects one of her fellow campers is trying to mess with her head and she homes in on one boy who she notices is trying to manipulate and control the others in the group.  However, in the end, it turns out the texts are coming from an entirely different source.

An average summer read with a plot twist.  The main storyline (of the mysterious message-sender) is a false flag, which is just as well since the guilty party isn't even introduced until page 200.  It's not badly written, but rather terribly executed.  Ordering the events in the story better for dramatic impact and stripping out the superfluous materials (starting with the largely pointless flashbacks) would have done wonders.  Too much of this book is spent on scenes that have nothing to do with the story and the ending is rushed through far too quickly.  Lots of nice ideas, but it's all under-edited and rushed out.

How To Be Normal, by Ange Crawford

Homeschooled by her stay-at-home Mom for most of her life, Astrid has grown up in a world that was tightly controlled by her father.  But when he loses his job and her Mom has to return to the workforce, Astrid goes to public school for her final year.  Being out of the house helps Astrid develop a backbone begin recognizing that she's allowed to want things and do things.  Understanding that living in constant fear of setting off her father's fiery temper is not normal and not okay.  She and her mother develop a plan to escape.

A strikingly original voice in a harrowing tale of domestic emotional abuse.  Handled by most YA writers, this would have been drudgery but Crawford takes a new spin on just about every YA trope, breathing life into everything from a bathroom sob fest to the climactic senior formal.  It's hard to surprise me at this point. Most writers fall back on outrageous plots twists to make their new book stand out, but Crawford doesn't have much new here on its face.  What she does instead is take a scene that's been done to death like getting caught sneaking out and make it seem like something you've never read before.  This is really a stand out novel.

Birdy, by N. West Moss

After the death of their mother, Birdy and her little brother Mouse are placed with a pair of distant relatives in Upstate New York.  Neither of them has ever been outside of New York City before so they find things very different.  Cars honking are replaced by frogs peeping through the night.  They are allowed to go outside by themselves and explore on their own.  There's summer camp and their aunt bakes wonderful treats for them.  The place is safe and they don't have to worry about things.

Birdy hates it.  She hates that the placement is only for six months.  What happens after that?  Will they be sent to another foster home?  Will she and Mouse be split up?  Yes, things are going well now, but they could easily go bad -- Birdy's seen enough times when that's happened!

With some persistence from the adults and a few odd friends, Birdy's fears are gradually overcome in this sweet piece about finding a home and building a new family.  Birdy's emotional rollercoaster authentically captures the challenges she faces learning to trust people.  The story is tried and true.  The surprises are few, but it's a nice story.

Always Your Sister, by Frances Prentice

A little over three years ago, Millie's mother delivered a stillborn baby.  Ever since that day, Millie has thought of what baby Noah would have been like if he had lived.  In her diary, she writes him letters and tells him about who she is.  And with Mom pregnant again, Millie has a lot to think about.  Set on a farm in rural Australia, Millie also describes life raising sheep in the midst of Australia's brutal droughts as well the various trials and tribulations of her family and friends.

While the pregnancy ties the whole thing together, the book is really just a long series of random vignettes chronicling how farm kids keep themselves busy and various details about the family's life over the nine-month period.  While certainly packed with activity, this doesn't really translate into a plot or a story.  The kids build a swing, start a garden, take turns helping out around the house, and regularly process their feelings about Noah's death, but there's no character development and no attempt to link the activities together.

American readers may also struggle with the lingo as well. A glossary for words like "ute" and "esky" would have been really helpful.

Love in Ruins, by Auriane Desombre

Natalie is spending a month this summer in Greece on a high school trip.  She's supposed to be studying the cultural antiquities and working on a project.  But instead she's distracted by Melanie, the pretty daughter of one of the instructors on the program.  It all comes at the worst possible time:  Natalie is trying to sort out having been recently diagnosed formally with OCD and how, because of her condition, relationships always seem to defeat her.  Every romantic attachment she has seems doomed and there is no reason why this new one should be any different.  But under the hot Mediterranean sun, anything seems possible.

Lovingly depicted by the author, Greece (and its food in particular) seems irresistible.  Our heroine and her erstwhile romance is much less interesting.  The major problem is that Natalie comes off as unfocused and undisciplined -- not so much OCD as immature. Schoolwork comes last and Natalie and her girlfriend spend the entire vacation sneaking off and having private adventures without any regard for chaperones or a budget.  It actually would have been a lot more interesting for Natalie to get busted on one of her escapades.  It would have provided a small dramatic edge to the story, which otherwise seems trite.  Despite some "third act" drama (a term actually used by the author herself), this is largely a travel guidebook to Greece and its more picturesque spots.  It excels at enumerating the must-see places and describing in mouth-watering details the cuisine.  The romance and Natalie's behavioral challenges are far less compelling and less fully enumerated.

Calling Me Home, by Laurin Becker Macios

Upon graduation, Jenny goes to Europe to explore before she starts college at NYU in the fall.  Backpacking across the continent, staying at hostels, and making lots of new friends, she has a small adventure.  Along the way, she meets an Irish boy named Colin and has a brief romance.  When she finally returns home (after a postponement or two), she discovers she is pregnant.  And while she decides to terminate the pregnancy and stick to her plan to attend university, things don't work out.  Her experience has changed her and the plans she made before Europe no longer fit who she has become.

Told in wistful verse, Jenny's voice is full of melancholy and regret.  That can create some isolated dramatic moments, but the storytelling overall is coarse and sketchy.  The verse is good quality but few of the pieces really stand out.  

Verse novels, as a genre, are prone to overly precious navel gazing. To succeed as a story, they really has to break new ground. But while pretty and full of feelings, this novel doesn't go into uncharted territory. It seems modestly satisfied with asserting that encountering new cultures and developing new relationships was transformative for Jenny.  Strangely underplayed and overlooked is why and how the changes happened.

Where Lost Girls Go, by Kody Keplinger

The five girls who have ended up living in the woods with a man they call Sol are not going to be missed by anyone.  They left home or were kicked out long ago.  Each one ended up at the end of their rope in the mountains of Kentucky, and were found and offered a home with young women like themselves.  Sol calls it a "garden" -- a place where the girls are finally treated with kindness.  Yes, there's chores and rules (and food sometimes run low), but there's a roof over their heads and safety.

For Iris, who was kicked out of her home and ended up here when her car died, Sol's cabin is an oasis.  After a year living there, she's eager to prove that she deserves to stay forever.  But to do that, she'll have to pass three trials that Sol hands out to her.  That doesn't bother her at first.  But when a new girl shows up who starts asking questions, Iris begins to wonder why she has to undergo "trials," why all the rules exist, and why they live this way?  And as Iris starts to look around with a critical eye, she finds that the garden has a snake or two.

A creepy story that provides enough tension to keep things interesting.  It certainly could have been made much more disturbing and exploitative, and I'm thankful that the author made an effort largely to stick to implied threats and dangers.  So, while you're on the edge of your seat to see what is going to happen next, things are kept largely PG-rated. 

The personal dynamics are a bit more hit or miss. It's hard in a story like this to convey how brainwashed the characters are and to make their behavior believable.  As outsiders, it's easy to see through Sol's grooming behavior and hard to see why Iris hesitates to leave.  That makes the hesitation and the deliberation a drag on the story's pacing.  But it's also realistic and the author does a good job of drawing distinctions between the behavior of the newer girls and the long-term residents which make the behavior more nuanced.

Bad Badger: A Family Story, by Maryrose Wood

In this sequel, Septimus the badger and Gully the seagull have settled into family life together, but not all is bliss.  Raising three white fluffballs is a lot of work!.  Gully is always out searching for food for them, leaving Septimus at home with his paws full.  Septimus longs for the joys of his old life:  listening to the opera or just having some alone time.  Gully meanwhile is worn old from foraging all day.  Tensions rise.

This threatens to get much worse when the forest badgers come for an extended visit.  After all, Septimus did invite them to come any time!  And, according to the forest badgers, a badger always says "yes"! With eight visiting badgers, the house falls into chaos.  And now it's Gully's turn to fret:  the chicks are showing no interest in learning to fly!  Worse than that, they've become convinced that they would rather dig with the badgers than fly with the gulls.  But with help from their respective flocks, Septimus and Gully get the chicks where they need to be.

The first Bad Badger book was a lovely story about the compromises that one makes in a loving relationship.  This sequel expands the theme into family in all of its many forms.  Whether it is Gully's flock of gulls or Septimus's  "flock" of badgers, the members help each other grow, doing for the individual what he or she needs.  Never too heavy or precious with that message, the story is full of humor and fun, and a packing in a thrilling adventure as the fluffballs grow into becoming members of their large extended family.  A lovely book for children and adults alike!

Three Sisters, by David Macinnis Gill

Three girls and their father climb a dormant volcano in the Cascades to release the ashes of their mother.  The girls are bickering and fighting, and their father, wracked by grief, is struggling to keep himself together.  The family is a wreck and that's before the mountain they are climbing starts becoming seismically active.  As strange smells, dying animals, and tremors start to appear -- all clues that something is seriously amiss -- the children and their Dad remain locked in their familial drama.  By the time they realize that they are in serious trouble, it is almost too late.

While the snarking between the girls had a realistic quality to it, it was overdone and carried on for too long.  When the girls are refusing to talk to each as volcanic ask is falling on them and their father is bleeding out, one just started to wonder how they ever became so bratty?  Quarrels can be cute but here it became distracting and annoying.

Far more enjoyable was how resourceful the girls are.  The youngest is a first aid whiz, which comes in awfully handy when the injuries start to happen.  Another is able to lead, even when the father basically shuts down inside his surprisingly immature mind.  And the third is a scientific wunderkind, able to carefully narrate what is happening around them with a surreal knowledge of all things geologic.  It wasn't terribly realistic either, but dramatically satisfying and necessary for such a complex situation to have someone be able to explain what was happening and what could happen next.

The pace is fast and unrelenting as one disaster after another befalls the girls and their father.  That keeps the pages turning and allowed me to blow past the annoying bits, resulting in a surprisingly rewarding read in the end.

One Word, Six Letters, by Adib Khorram

Dared by a friend to shout an offensive word at the school assembly, Dylan finds himself in a heap of trouble after he does so.  At first, he doesn't understand why.  It's was just a funny thing to do and didn't hurt anyone.  It's not like he's a homophobe.  But when the school's reaction is severe and Dylan starts losing friends because of his actions, he begins to consider the harm of words.

Farshid lives in fear of people thinking he's gay.  He's not, is he?  He likes some girls, but he also can't help but admire the toned bodies of some of the guys with whom he works out.  To compensate, Farshid exercises several times a day and watches his diet to maximize muscle gain.  If he can be strong enough, no one will question his masculinity.

Two young men with image issues, learning to take less for granted and focus on being better people.  For Dylan, it's about separating himself from his prejudiced friends.  For Farshid, it's about accepting who he is.  Both have a journey to take.

While the setup is original (gay-curious Persian kid meets clueless boy with homophobic friends), there isn't much going on in this story.  The characters struggle with their egos and their need to prove themselves, but they don't really branch out.  I didn't feel much interest in or empathy for them.

The Secret Astronomers, by Jessica Walker

Two young people meet through messages that they leave each other in their school library's oldest circulating book -- an archaic nineteenth century astronomy textbook.  One of them was sent to the book by a note left by their late mother.  The other one is actually trying to use the book for their studies and is flummoxed to find that the book is being rapidly defaced through doodles.  What starts as an angry conversation about vandalizing school property morphs into a friendship between misfits, two outcasts stuck in their rural West Virginian school.  A search to solve a number of clues left by the dead mother points them to an unsolved mystery from the past.

The design of the book is truly remarkable.  Every page is a collage of original drawings and post-it notes, laid over and frequently inspired by the original text of an ancient science book.  It feels like a graphic novel, but is far more immersive. And it represents an amazing effort -- well planned and plotted -- and a unique reading experience.  The presentation doesn't just bring us into the story, it essentially makes the reading part of the narrative.

It's hard not to admire the design and originality, so I feel bad about noting that I didn't find the story itself all that engrossing and the design element makes this a slow read.  Still, for a taste of something truly different, this takes the cake!

Dust, by Alison Stine

Transported to a drought-ravaged Colorado by her prepper parents, Thea yearns for school, friends, and someone to understand her.  Hard of hearing, she struggles to communicate in the best of circumstances.  Now stuck miles away from the closest town with a father who is paranoid about any contact with the outside word, Thea is isolated and alone. Her own family blames her for her issues and refuse to get her help. Thea herself doesn't see any future, just a premonition of doom.

But financial difficulties mean that Thea needs to earn money and that brings her into town, where she meets a boy who is half-deaf like her and knows how to sign.  It opens up a path -- one that her family will do everything to block.  But as the homestead fails and the family's plans crumble in the face of drought, locusts, and dust storms, something has to give.

A timely update to Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath that takes global warming and the expansion of agribusiness into account, this novel has a timeless quality to it that promises that it will become part of many required reading lists in the near future.  Strong characters, a unique setting, and some brilliant universe building creates a compelling story. I was disappointed at the ending which aims to wrap everything up neatly, which seemed overly ambitious, but overwise wowed by this book.

Jane Stays Dreaming, by Britnee Meiser

To enliven a life that she finds dull and meaningless, Jane secretly maintains a blog in which she portrays herself as a beautiful and glamorous girl named Anastasia who has popularity, a cute boyfriend, and endless trips to New York City.  In her netzine, she posts photos, gossip, and advice to thousands of followers.  

No one in her real life knows about her online activity and Jane wants to keep things that way.  But when a new girl moves to town and reveals that she's a follower of Anastasia's writings, Jane is put in an awkward position.  The girl confesses online that she has an interest in Jane's best friend Leo.  While Leo and Jane are only friends, the outside threat makes Jane realize that her feelings for Leo are stronger than she's ready to accept.

On the face of it, this novel doesn't offer much that is really new.  It has all the tropes -- the false crush, the mean girl competitor, the inevitable unveiling of Jane's secret life, and soulmates-in-denial -- and doesn't attempt any surprises.  So, why did I enjoy it?  I suppose because who doesn't like two lovers finding each other in the end (after all, it worked fine for Shakespeare on multiple occasions)?  But really it's the characters that make this novel.  Jane and the others are articulate but still very much adolescent.  Their jealousies and insecurities are worn on their sleeves for the reader to clearly see and we don't waste much time with miscommunications.  That allows for some pretty quick resolutions, but it's a relief not having to drown in lots of invented drama.  These kids can pretty much invent enough on their own!

So, while the story is formulaic, this novel gets a boost by crafting relatable characters from whom readers can learn some lessons without being preached to.  And for those who already know the curriculum, there is the delight in a well-written account.

All Better Now, by Neal Shusterman

A new virus has begun to spread around the world called Crown Royale.  It carries a 4% mortality rate and for the survivors the after-effects are particularly striking:  recoverees find themselves free of all worldly cares.  Unhappy people find happiness.  Rich people give away their money.  Fighters become peacemakers.  The virus is transformative.

For people with problems, there is something appealing about the changes that the virus triggers.  But for others, particularly with things to lose, the virus is dangerous.  With no cares, greed is eradicated and along with it capitalism.  With fear erased and war ended, power structures that rely on them are threatened.  While many recoverees come to embrace the changed world and promote the spread of the virus, a shrinking group works hard to find a vaccine that will curb the infection.

Three young people with an important role to play form the crux of the story.  Ron, the son of one of the richest men in the world.  Mariel, penniless, but ultimately one of the most powerful people on the planet.  And finally Morgan, ruthless enough to make the decisions that could change the course of humanity.  

Given the time that has passed since the COVID pandemic, the themes of the book feel less vital and vibrant, but Shusterman's exploration of the spread of greed and fear, a countervailing movement of empathy, and the struggle between them feels quite relevant in the present day.  Making the contemporary clash of social movements that currently wrack havoc in our world into viral pandemics may lack subtlety but it provides biting commentary in a highly digestible form. 

In the end, I enjoyed this action adventure with some moral heft. The storytelling itself is lively and page-turning and most of the time Shusterman keeps the philosophical debates to a minimum (not that those are not interesting, but it can become burdensome and negatively impact the pacing).  The balance between action and social commentary that he achieves left me feeling entertained but also full of thought-provoking questions (like whether infecting the world with kindness would make us truly better off or whether people should have the right to make wrong decisions).

16 For Ever, by Lance Rubin

When Carter wakes up on the morning of his sixteenth birthday, he's psyched and ready to give his little brother hell.  But he finds his little brother is now older than him, as in fact is the rest of the world.  To him, it may seem like he was fifteen years old yesterday, but six years have gone by since then.  For unknown reasons, Carter is stuck in a loop.  Every year, instead of turning seventeen, he turns sixteen all over again.  And with no memory of the past year, he's forced to relearn everything, aware that time has passed for everyone else and his friends have gotten older.

This is especially hard for Maggie, his girlfriend for most of the past year, whom he no longer even remembers and who is now a year older than him.  If Carter is going to loop every year, what chance does their relationship have?  At first, Maggie tries to keep the fact that they even dated a secret, but that doesn't last long.  And since this is a YA novel, they are pretty much fated to come back together.

All of which leads to the pressing question of why Carter is stuck in his loop in the first place. At first, Carter thinks that there was a mistake that he made somewhere before his seventeenth birthday that triggered this.  But as he and his friends and family dig into the matter, it seems much more complicated.

I liked the premise of the story, but it's a hard idea to pull off.  Not only fantastical, the concept of getting older without growing up raises all sorts of logistical issues (some of the funnier of which, like a high school junior being legally old enough to buy booze, are explored).  Rubin goes down a few rabbit holes trying to logic these out, but the story suffers the harder he tries to explain it.  It works best if we just take the aging thing on faith and run with it.  The rest of the story is fairly average -- entertaining and enjoyable summer reading -- but without much to help it stand out.