Adaptation

One of the things I really appreciate about Malinda Lo as a writer, is that while she often uses fairly common YA tropes, the story she tells is never the one you think you're going to read when starting out. I read it just after Homeland by Cory Doctorow and the 2 pair really nicely. The slightly lower rating from me has more to do with me not really being into aliens than anything else.

ADAPTATION by Malinda Lo is an interesting young adult science fiction story that gives the reader not just aliens, but Area 51, conspiracies, genetics and one hell of a cliffhanger!

Reese and David are away on a school debate club trip when birds start going crazy and randomly dying, falling out of the air and even into planes, crashing quite a few throughout the United States and Canada. Grounded, the teacher chaperone rents a car and begins their long drive home to San Francisco – and that’s where the action begins. With the bird strikes bringing down planes, the government blocking off areas of cities, lots of questions and no answers, people have begun to panic a bit. There’s an attempted car theft, a shooting, more dead birds show more and a horrific car accident all within the first bit of the book. But then it slows. And there is a lot of speculation on what happened to Reese and David in the car accident, talking about what’s happening with the birds, Reese has some funky dreams and falls in like with Amber, a girl who literally runs into her one day and has questionable loyalties and aims, Reese does some painting, and then not much more action until the end which leads up to a crazy cliffhanger just when it was getting intense.

Most of the middle of the book actually focuses on Reese and Amber’s growing relationship, Reese’s questions about her sexuality, and the crazy yellow and red room Reese keeps seeing in her dreams that she feels means more than she can remember. After the car accident, she and David were treated at a military hospital and are forbidden to speak of it to anyone else. So of course you know some crazyness had to have gone down while they were there (think genetics). There are plenty of secrets to be had in ADAPTATION, and the revelations about some of them are really well timed and explored. There is quite a good conspiracy going on throughout the story and the sci-fi elements are wicked. I would have liked to see more aliens rather than the insides of military complexes and hospital rooms, but I feel the aliens may play a bigger roll in the sequel. Reese is an interesting character and I enjoyed getting to know her – her voice is very clear throughout the story, as are descriptions, explanations and emotions (especially emotions!)

ADAPTATION by Malinda Lo may be a bit of a quieter sci-fi than I generally enjoy, but there were enough elements that kept me guessing, wondering and frustratingly wanting to strangle government people that I zipped through the book at a good pace and stayed entertained while reading. The rather abrupt end leaves the reader hanging for the sequel, and while that can sometimes backfire, in this case I am just eager to get my hands on book two so I can find out what happens with Reese, David and the aliens! Because guys, aliens. How can you not want to know how the story continues? show less

Well, that's a cliff hanger of a book. It all starts with birds falling from the sky, which is never a auspicious way to start a plot (well, for the characters at least, for the author it's a great way). But the 'birds making planes crash' is only the start of the crazy adventure that Lo take the readers (as well as Reese, David, Amber, Julian, and all the other characters) through as we follow Reese trying to figure out what happened during twenty seven days she doesn't remember.

Characters. There's Reese and David. They're debate partners and most of the novel is seen through Reese's eyes. And boy does she go through a lot. She meets Amber, or to be more specific, Amber runs into Reese and Reese finds herself drawn to the pink haired show more girl. And then there's Julian, Reese's best friend, a gay, part Jewish guy and my favorite character by a long shot. He's also the conspiracy theory guy that nicely keeps the plot moving.

It's a sort of subtle science fiction book, especially at the beginning. But slowly as the story unfolds for Reese it also does for us.

One of the only things I didn't love about it was how the character of David seemed like an afterthought. Amber, Reese, even Julian seemed very well drawn, but David just didn't seem to have the same sort of detail about him.

What I really liked though was how well the plot was put together. In a lot of ways it was like a thriller plot. The reader wasn't quite sure what was going to come next. I also very much liked the place descriptions, both interiors and exteriors (the dram yellow, red thingie-- whoa-- awesome and slightly disturbing).

It's definitely a science fiction novel, but it's also very rooted in real life too, sometimes in a very depressing (i.e. governmentalish) also. show less

Huuuummmmnnaaa. I needed this so badly, and started it on a plane flying home from San Francisco to Texas, without even a summary.

The first hilarious thing was me realizing this book was set in San Francisco, and that everything about that made me feel infinitely more intimately intertwined with the book as I was leaving my first trip to the city. Where the fog really does roll in every morning, and again every afternoon, and how people really do carry sweat shirt for that second afternoon/evening fog roll in, even on warm summer morning. How people just knock into you and keep going, the rush, rush, rush of that city and everyone in their own little bubble worlds. I felt I could place this world so well.

And then we bring in the whole show more book plot itself, which I don't even want to give it away. This book is tight and it's reveal is fast and slow all at once the whole way through, making you look over your shoulder, the characters shoulder, questioning everything the whole way. Because I promise you, even once you think you know what's going on, you still don't. There's a whole bunch I really still can't wait to see when it decides to take place in book 2 (and book 3 if there is a 3).



As a rare shoutout, this is probably the first ya book in the history of time that I felt properly, respectfully, and without pointing out to every dragging, breaking book coda -- the discovery of being bisexual in a ya character. Without it changing who she was or the story the book was telling. It was so so so well done. It just happens, on both sides of the line like breathing. With both a girl and boy (even if yes it sets up a triangle for Book 2, which I'm note entirely fond of). It's just handled so effortlessly I felt like I didn't have to stare or scrutinize my sexuality being displayed. My hat off entirely. show less

Adaptation. By Malinda Lo. Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group, Inc. 2012. 386 pages. $17.99 hbk. 978-0316197960. Grades 8-12.

Reese lives in a world much like our own – until birds start dropping dead all over the country and a surgery she receives after a car crash leaves her with some new abilities. Lo juggles teenage concerns and science fiction elements with grace: Reese deals with figuring out her sexuality, dating, and navigating her family relationships along with coming to grips with how a mysterious surgery on an army base has changed her body’s responses. The premise is interesting (although the work is clearly building to a sequel – an asset for some, an annoyance for others) and Reese is an engaging show more character, allowing the novel to be accessible for a wide range of teenage readers, whether or not they have an expressed interest in science fiction. Lo’s writing is gripping and suspenseful, and the plot moves along at an exciting pace. Reese’s world of government conspiracy is perhaps not so removed from our own NSA-tinged reality (unlike the distant dystopias offered by works like The Hunger Games): encouraging a little critical thought about the reader’s own current surroundings is a secondary quality of this enjoyable read. Recommended. show less

I went into this YA novel with very little in terms of prior knowledge about the premise. Like a kid immediately and inappropriately attracted to shiny things, I was drawn to this book as a featured title on NetGalley (PS - Thanks ever so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this galley at no cost in exchange for my honest yet humble opinion). I've been sucked into an unexpected love affair with into dystopian YA lately, with half the rest of the world's readership, so I decided to check Adaptation out. And I'm glad that I did.

It was fun. I geek out on conspiracy theory in general - and I've always had a special place in my heart for X-File reruns - so NATURALLY I was STOKED to find out this novel had everything to do with show more aliens and Area 51. Throw in some ground-breakingly honest, guilt-free LGBTQ relationship exploration and coming of age realness - and I'm sold on a one way ticket to an ol' fashioned good time.

Reese kinda-sorta has a crush on her debate team partner, the hunky but intelligent David Lee. Of course, she is freaked out by her attraction to him - especially since she's sworn off any time of relationship after witnessing the train-wreck that was her parents' separation. After being defeated at the semifinal debate tournament due to Reese's anxiety about her feelings towards her partner, the two high schoolers become stranded far away from home when a series of events cause all domestic flights to be grounded indefinitely. Birds are attacking airplanes in unprecedented number, causing more felled planes and dead passengers than the government is willing to admit. The US is not the only country to fall under attack; the world is riddled with similar incidents that are too uncanny and too frequent to write off as freak chance. The fear of terrorism comes into everyone's heads, but their fears are just touted as just that - unfounded paranoia without proof or validation.

Deciding to rent a car together in an attempt to make the journey home, Reese and David set out on a deadly road trip that will change their lives forever. While avoiding a disturbing number of military roadblocks that force the teens to alter their course home, the teens face increasing hysteria and violence stemming from the unprecedented national tragedy that has yet to be explained or acknowledged by the world's leaders. Fleeing from the unexpected random murder of their chaperon at a gas station, Reese and David set off for unknown desert territory at a dangerous pace. In an act that, really, shocks no one, the car is attacked by (AHHH!) those very same kamikaze avian terrorists that took down the world's passenger planes, causing an epic car crash in the middle of the desert. Needless to say, the teens are surprised to wake in a military top-secret facility, where they have unwittingly received unconventional medical treatment while in a prolonged comatose state. Before being discharged, the two are forced to sign non-disclosure agreements about their treatment. They are seemingly healed...so why are both David and Reese experiencing odd symptoms? And what REALLY happened to help heal their devastating accident wounds?

As I mentioned before, there's unconventional romance aplenty - a nice contrast to the more science-fictiony aspects of the novel. I enjoyed it - and I certainly would have enjoyed more of the story - but I suppose that is to come in later books. What's with the series lately, YA authors? Why ya gotta make a girl read more than just one book to get the whole scoop? *sigh* Chalk this up as another series I'll have to follow up with. show less

This book packs it all in: aliens, terrorism, government conspiracies, first love, coming out, avian disarray, loss, pain...You name it, it's here. Lo writes a page turner that leaves you shocked at the end of every chapter, and leaves your heart aching. Oddly enough, for me it was not the government conspiracies that felt improbable and unresolved, it was the queer romance.