While We Run

Starred review from April 1, 2014
In the follow-up to When We Wake (2013), a diverse, skilled and politically committed group of teenagers fights a chillingly sinister government in a future Australia. The first volume saw Tegan Oglietti, revived from cryonic suspension in the year 2128, expose the Australian government's secret plot to send a starship into space with cryogenically frozen third-world refugees to perform slave labor. Pragmatic, politically savvy Abdi Taalib, the "thirdie" from Djibouti who became close to Tegan in the previous installment, narrates here. When the story opens, both teens are in the control of government handlers, coerced by physical, emotional and sometimes sexual torture to publicly promote the government's starship scheme. The villains and their tactics are believable and frightening, and the political and ethical questions raised are satisfyingly complex. Is it ever right to sacrifice human life for political expediency? Are any lives more important than others? This is the best kind of speculative fiction, combining diverse, well-realized characters with thought-provoking dilemmas. Abdi's strong voice and keen awareness of his own ability to manipulate situations provide a compelling window into a future world. Suspenseful, well-crafted and visionary. (Science fiction. 12-18)

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April 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-In this gripping sequel to When We Wake (Little, Brown, 2013), the schemes, betrayals, and heroics of a group of teenagers living in Australia in 2127 are told from the perspective of Abdi Taalib, who was last seen through the eyes of Tegan, the first novel's protagonist. The story opens with Abdi and Tegan in captivity, used and abused in order to quell the unrest they created with Tegan's last telecast that uncovered various governmental wrongdoings. There is, of course, a thrilling escape, shifting loyalties, tough decisions, and romance. The future world Healey creates is all the more terrifying for being entirely plausible. Her chosen dystopian plot points (regeneration of cryogenically frozen youth, environmental destruction, and dreams of fleeing a dying planet) are compelling and gripping. However, it's the social justice consciousness she brings to these elements that make this title stand above most others. Her cast of characters is diverse but not tokenizing or whitewashed. A Muslim girl scrupulously performs her prayers in between her journalist/hacker crusades. The trans lesbian chemist helps bring medicine to struggling nations but refuses to engage in top-down cultural imperialism. Abdi is a rape survivor, and Healey offers one of the rare instances when an abusive sexual dynamic between an older woman and a teenage boy is effectively dealt with in young adult fiction. There are some four-letter words and sexuality, but nothing gratuitous or overly graphic, and while the themes are fairly intense, the series is an excellent read for high school students.-Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School, New York City

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 The strong sequel to When We Wake (2013) continues the story of Tegan, the cryogenically preserved Australian murder victim who has been revived to become propaganda for the Resolution, a starship designed to seed a new, more viable planet as Earth withers and dies. This time, the novel is told from the point of view of Abdi, Tegan's love interest and unwitting fellow propagandist. The government has forced them to sing and dance for potential Resolution donors, and as they wait for help, isolated and broken, secrets emerge that are more sinister than those originally hidden in the cryogenics labs. While the pacing occasionally lags, readers will easily become entangled in the messy questions of ethics that Abdi and Tegan face as they try to escape a political plot. Together, Abdi and Tegan must decide whether freeing themselves is worth the lives of others and to what lengths they are willing to go to spread the truth. An apt parable for contemporary socioeconomic times.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
In When We Wake, Tegan and Abdi revealed the government's plan to populate a new planet with cryogenically frozen slaves. Abdi begins narrating six months after their capture by the government. Like its predecessor, Run succeeds simply as a sci-fi thriller, but it's elevated by its social commentary, emphasizing the importance of fighting for justice in a world that has little of it.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2014
In When We Wake (rev. 3/13), Tegan was cryogenically frozen in 2027 and reanimated a hundred years later; with love interest Abdi, she revealed the truth about the Ark Project, the Australian government's plan to populate a new planet with cryogenically frozen third-world slaves. Abdi begins narrating this sequel six months after their capture by the government; he's being tortured by his "handler" and forced to sing in front of wealthy crowds funding the project. Then Tegan and Abdi are saved -- and reunited with their friends -- but their rescuers want to use Tegan as a spokesperson for their own purposes. On the run from both them and the government, Abdi, Tegan, and their supporters learn of a crucial flaw in the cryonics program that forces them to take action in order to save lives. Like its predecessor, Run succeeds simply as a sci-fi thriller; there's plenty of action (including some grisly violence), a frightening villain, and a well-imagined (and refreshingly diverse) future society. But the novel is elevated by its social commentary, emphasizing the importance of fighting for justice in a world that has little of it -- even if it means making difficult political and moral decisions. As Abdi thinks after one such choice, "I was going to have to make decisions like this often. I'd have to compromise and haggle and choose between bad options and worse ones, over and over again." Readers can only hope that Abdi and company will return to do just that. rachel l. smith

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)