Adaptation (edition 2012)

This is a young adult scifi novel that combines some familiar tropes with some new twists.

Reese Holloway and David Li, juniors at Kennedy High School in San Francisco, are in Arizona for a national debate competition when planes start falling out of the sky. All of them allegedly crashed because of bird strikes. Reese, texting her BFF Julien, finds out that there are theories of a government cover-up of even more crashes than have been publicized, combined with a suspicious media blackout. Thus, Reese, David, and their debate coach decide to drive back to San Francisco instead of risking their lives in the air. But much goes wrong on the way, and Reese and David end up in a life-threatening accident close to Area 51.

Reese, it must be noted, has been harboring a secret crush on David. Maybe David likes her back or maybe not. The accident makes all that moot. And when David and Reese are released from their hospital after a month of being in medical-induced comas to save their lives, all they know is that they are now different somehow ... in a very freaky way.

Moreover, after they are back home, Reese meets a very striking girl, Amber, and develops a crush on her too.

Is this coming of age? Or something spookier? Because nothing has been the same since Reese and David were OPERATED ON in Area 51!

Discussion: For me, this book exhibited both strengths and weaknesses.

What I liked:

You have to love a book full of bisexual, gay, and straight characters and everyone is cool about it.

And did I mention mixed races of all sorts?

What I didn’t like:

Reese is 17, but she usually acts much younger. She can be incredibly naïve, immature and stupid for someone her age.

The girl-with-the-gay-best-friend plotline is getting old…

The actions taken on the roads by panicky people and a suddenly-fascist military seemed pretty unlikely to me.

The government official characters (each with names like Special Agent X) seemed more like over-the-top movie caricatures (wearing dark glasses of course) than realistic officials under those same circumstances.

Last but not least, there is a scene that is so Richard Dreyfuss-and-the-mashed-potatoes that I couldn’t believe the author would include it without having to include an acknowledgement to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"!

Evaluation: Easy recipe for this book: Take a well-worn movie plot full of well-meaning aliens and evil government officials and re-tell it for a YA audience. Throw in all sorts of diversity. Add a semi-cliffhanger at the end so readers will be back for Book Two. (Some readers, that is.... Probably not this reader.) ( )

SUCH mixed feelings about this one. In some ways it felt like completely different genres smashed up into one another, and the characters and relationships seemed fairly shallow. I was really uncomfortable with the assaults, and in general I wasn't sure I liked the story all that much. But at the same time, I burned right through it, so obviously something about it appealed to me. And I've been thinking lately that I really miss aliens and conspiracy theories. The 90s really were my time.

So fun! Don't be put off by the cover design. ( )

Plot: 4 stars
Characters: 3 1/2 stars
Style: 4 stars
Pace: 3 1/2 stars

Love the way the relationships are handled in this. Really, this is one of those books that should be 3 stars, but the deft handling of glbt relationships woven in with an entertaining scifi story bumps it up. ( )

Adaptation is a fun read. I was happy to see that all the POV-switching that annoyed me in Lo's earlier novel, Huntress, was absent this time - the story is rooted firmly in the main character's perspective, which makes for much easier reading. That said, I still found the pacing a little slow and the revelations a bit thin.

On to the summary: the story starts with a high school debate team: Reese Holloway and David Li, and their teacher/coach, Mr. Chapman. The three are stuck in an airport in Phoenix, waiting for a plane back to their home in San Francisco. They've just lost debate finals because of Reese, who's crush on David proved distracting and distressing (her parents have a horrible relationship and she's sworn off dating anyone, ever.)

Suddenly, they hear news reports of birds flying into planes and crashing them. When air traffic is suspended, they rent a car, but when their teacher is murdered in a carjacking, Reese and David are left to try and get home. A series of road blocks and detours forces them to drive through the Nevada desert, and right around Area 51, a bird flies into their headlights and Reese crashes the car!

They wake up in a top-secret military hospital, their injuries healed, with no idea what happened to them - but they are forced to sign a weirdly threatening non-discolsure agreement. When they go home, Reese and David find themselves shadowed by "men in black" and spied on by high tech bugs. They also seem to have some unsettling new abilities - Reese scrapes her hands and heals instantly, and she can seem to feel other people's emotions, while David may be telepathic.

Reese meets a cute girl with pink hair who literally runs into her and then buys her coffee. The girl is Amber Gray - she's beautiful and Reese finds herself falling in love with her. Reese is surprised at her new feelings, but her best friend, Julian is gay, and her mother is completely supportive of her new romance, so things are pretty good - until she sees Amber speaking to one of the doctors from Area 51. Then, the government agents come back, kidnapping Reese and David, and hauling them back to a rival secret government facility, Project Blue Base.

The story involves many urban myths / conspiracy theories such as Area 51, men in black, aliens . . . It should appeal to fans of the X-Files. The lesbian romance subplot was nicely written, but I wasn't that impressed with the alien/government conspiracy plot, which didn't come together as smoothly, IMO. I also can't quite put my finger on it, but something about the writing style left me skimming parts of it and I wasn't that immersed in the world Lo created. I was left with a lot of questions - like why were the "men in black" working for both Project Plato and the rival Project Blue Base? Anyways, it is a fun read though and a very nice lesbian romance and I've already pre-ordered the sequel. ( )