Eight years ago, the indie kids battled vampires. Before that, it was the soul-sucking ghosts. Now something else is going on; indie kids are dying, there’s some kind of mysterious blue light searching for them, inhabiting townsfolk, and Satchel is in love with an alien prince she sees whenever she holds a pendant left to her by a dead boy.
But that’s not the story we’re here for.
In his latest offering, Ness deals with the Chosen Ones storyline from a very different perspective. We’re not following Buffy as she tries to stop the Hellmouth from opening; we’re following the other kids, the nobodies, as they deal with the last year of high school, crushes on their best friends, family problems, and mental illness, and this time the Chosen Ones take a back seat.
True to form, Ness delivers characters we can’t help but love, and this story will appeal to readers who like the weird stuff, as well as those who like the more realistic problems. This one’s got it all. Definitely a favourite for the year.
