KIRKUS vol. lxxx, no. 8 | 15 april 2012 REVIEWS the world’s toughest book critics for more than 75 years fiction nonfiction children’s & teen Jo Baker offers up an Mary Downing Hahn impressive family saga Michael J. Sandel returns dissects the effects of a that is poignant and rarely with an exquisitely reasoned, double murder on a whole predictable p. 780 skillfully written treatise on community in a gripping big issues of everyday life p. 831 historical thriller p. 855 in this issue: children’s & teen books in continuing series kirkus q&a featured indie Poet Helen Frost and David Perlstein lambastes nature photographer Rick American Middle East policy Lieder discuss their stunning and the hypocrisy of Gulf politics first-time collaboration, in his new satire p. 888 Step Gently Out p. 858 www.kirkusreviews.com Chairman The Invisible Dystopia HERBERT SIMON # President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN Chief Operating Officer Last week, Vicky Smith, Children’s & Teen Editor, referenced Paolo Bacigalupi, speaking on the overwhelming MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] heteronormativity of teen dystopias. We asked Bacigalupi to expand on the subject, and he graciously agreed. Editor ELAINE SZEWCZYK 9 [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor Looking at recent trend s in young people’s lit, I’ve sometimes joked that the term ERIC LIEBETRAU [email protected] “dystopia” actually means a story where “The Man” screws with someone’s love life. But in fact, Features Editor MOLLY BROWN dystopian literature has a long tradition of screwing with people’s love lives—it’s an ideal invasion [email protected] Children’s & Teen Editor that emphasizes the power of the state. When I was recently asked why more gays and lesbians VICKY SMITH weren’t seen in dystopian novels, my off-the-cuff response was that our present day is plenty dys- [email protected] Mysteries Editor topic enough. Some future-tastic police state isn’t going to be more horrifying than what GLBTQ THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor teens experience now in modern America. We’re a veritable checklist of dystopian tropes: GREGORY McNAMEE Indie Editor • Politicians outlawing/demonizing you? Check. RYAN LEAHEY • Fellow citizens denying you the rights “normal” people enjoy? Check. [email protected] Editorial Coordinator • “Therapy” to fix your deviance? Check. CHELSEA LANGFORD [email protected] • Religion spewing hatred about you? Inciting followers to fear/revile/reform you? Check. Copyeditor BETSY JUDKINS • People who will abuse—or even kill you—if they discover your true nature? Check. [email protected] Director of Kirkus Editorial It’s actually difficult to think of many dystopian novels that persecute their protagonists to PERRY CROWE this extent. And that’s the real horror. We are a dystopian society, and we don’t even notice. We’re [email protected] Director of Technology the evil state, crushing the individuality out of everyone who doesn’t conform conform conform. ERIK SMARTT [email protected] For me, the real objective in writing a dystopia about being gay would be to rattle a shockingly Developer BRANTON DAVIS complacent straight readership into something approaching empathy. A really effective dystopia [email protected] Director of Marketing takes the reader to a distorted future, so that when they close the book, they see their own world, in CASEY GANNON a new light. 1984 was a wild distortion, but it was seeded with ideas we were missing in the present. [email protected] Advertising Sales Associate So instead of writing a story about being gay, create one about being straight. Create a world AMY GAYHART [email protected] where heterosexuality is a shocking desire. Marketing Associate DUSTIN LIEN Charles Coleman Finlay did this in his poignant short story “Pervert.” For a heterosexual [email protected] reader, the experience is an overwhelming sense of loneliness as the straight character navigates # for customer service or subscription questions, a world where no one can imagine why he would “choose” a perversion like heterosexuality. The please call 1-800-316-9361 story resonates because it twists our present norms and reflects them back at us. It’s painful and # This Issue’s Contributors saddening, and mightily effective because at last, you, the “normal” reader, can experience a soci- Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Stefan Barkow • Sarah ety that reviles you, simply for your basic nature. Bellezza • Amy Boaz • Lee E. Cart • Marnie Colton • Dave DeChristopher • Gregory F. DeLaurier • David Dystopias should be insurgent. They should force readers to question who they are, what their Delman • Kathleen Devereaux • Steve Donoghue • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • society is like and what they take for granted. A good dystopia will illuminate the horrors right Gro Flatebo • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Faith Giordano • Christine Goodman • Michael Griffith • Anne Lawrence before our eyes, and one can hope that if it does its job well, it will create empathy and humanity Guyon • Peter Justice • Robert M. Knight • Paul Lamey • Kathryn Lawson • Judith in a world that is sorely lacking. Leitch • Daniel Lindley • Elsbeth Lindner • Melissa A. Marsh • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • 9 Clayton Moore • Chris Morris • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Sarah Norris • Mike Oppenheim • Paolo Bacigalupi is the author of the Printz Award–winning novel Ship Breaker. His companion novel, Joshua T. Pederson • Jim Piechota • Amira Pierce • William E. Pike • Jon The Drowned Cities, will be out in May 2012. C. Pope • Gary Presley • David Rapp • Kristen Bonardi Rapp • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Michael Sandlin • William P. Shumaker • Rosanne Simeone • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Patricia Stanley • Matthew Tif- fany • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg for more reviews and features, • Rodney Welch • Carol White • Chris White • Joan Wilentz • Homa Zaryouni • visit us online at kirkusreviews.com. Alex Zimmerman contents fiction The Kirkus Star is awarded INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ................................................... p. 779 to books of remarkable REVIEWS ........................................................................................ p. 779 merit, as determined by the MYSTERY........................................................................................p. 798 impartial editors of Kirkus. SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ...................................................p. 804 RAP SHEET SPRING CRIME PICKS ............................................p. 786 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...................................................p. 807 REVIEWS ........................................................................................p. 807 J. KINGSTON PIERCE ON TITANIC BOOKS ..............................p. 822 children’s & teen INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .................................................. p. 841 REVIEWS ....................................................................................... p. 841 Q&A WITH HELEN FROST AND RICK LIEDER ..........................p. 858 INTERACTIVE E-BOOKS ............................................................. p. 880 CONTINUING SERIES ROUND-UP ............................................ p. 882 indie INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................p. 883 REVIEWS .........................................................................................p. 883 Mac Barnett returns with a book that will Q&A WITH DAVID PERLSTEIN .................................................... p. 888 surely spark student spinoffs. See the starred review on p. 843. | kirkusreviews.com | contents | 15 april 2012 | 777 you can now purchase books online at www.kirkusreviews.com on the web www.kirkusreviews.com/lists Royal Mail Steamer Titanic have been published over the last year, with a particular flood of them reaching bookstores just in time for this month’s 100th anniversary. Read our roundup of must- reads on the Titanic. Discover more lists created by the critics online: New and Notable Fiction in April children’s New and Notable Nonfiction in April New and Notable Books for Teens in April April is National Poetry Month, and we are New and Notable Books for Children in April celebrating some of its finest poets and writers’ Earth Day Books latest books at kirkusreviews.com. This month, 9 we talk to Philip Levine, the National Poet You are passionate about books and so are we. Visit the Kirkus Book Laureate, on the state of poetry and his Bloggers Network to find current commentary on your favorite genres. recommendations of the must-read new poets; From celebrity to sci-fi, we cover it all. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis; and cover a slew of new poetry books for children. www.kirkusreviews.com/blogs teen Our teen book blogger Bookshelves of Doom fiction has long been recommending her favorite reads for us at Kirkus. Columnist Leila Roy’s picks We continue to profile authors of note and their always seem ready to be the next big thing in latest titles. This month, we talk with Graham teen lit, and her enthusiastic recommendations Swift about Wish You Were Here, a novel of rural are infectious. This month, Roy reads Robin England in which a man mourns the death of LaFevers’ Grave Mercy, a book she calls “a whiz- his brother, a soldier in Iraq with whom he’d bang of a read…it plays with genre conventions lost contact,