Unmade

October 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-A strong follow-up to Entangled (Houghton Harcourt, 2013). Leaving behind the lab that created her and the boy she was connected to at the particle level, Cadence and her chosen family head out with a new mission-to find Cade's mother, and to unite and rescue the scattered survivors of the human race. Cade, always gifted in music, is tuned to a wavelength that lets her hear people's inner songs and reach them across interstellar distances. The enemy in their way is not the other species of the galaxy but the Unmakers, a group of disciplined, ruthless ex-humans who view emotion and personality as weakness and are intent on exterminating their own kind. This sci-fi tale forgoes much of the exposition and hesitation that bogged down the previous book, allowing its heroine to grow and become more interesting as she expands her mission, worldview, and emotional range. The supporting characters remain deeply vivid, but the true force of the book is Cade's inner life as she single-handedly tries to hold the physical and psychological elements of her world together in that age-old search for home. The first-person narration's focus has a dreamlike quality that can leave out key world-building elements (spaceflight over long distances seems suspiciously easy and comfortable) but mostly tends to work, coating the implausible details of the plot in an aura of myth and allegory, allowing the deus ex machina conclusion to feel appropriate and satisfactory. This is an unusual book with many flaws, but it is full of friendship, romance, danger, and yearning.-Katya Schapiro, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Following Entangled (2013), rock star-turned-would-be savior Cade makes a stand to save humanity from the Unmakers.Using her psychic musical abilities, Cade discovers the location of her mother and, with her plucky band of friends, crewmates and living spaceship, succeeds in reaching her-though her mother's badly afflicted by the crippling catatonia of spacesick. The mother-daughter reunion is interrupted by an Unmakers' attack. Cade and company rescue as many as they can before learning just how devastating the attack really was. Prompted by the need to take care of the survivors, Cade decides the time is right to unite the fragments of humanity scattered across the universe and sets off to find them. While Cade pulls together her fleet and defends it, she uncovers crucial information about her musically entangled connection to the universe, spacesick, the nature of Unmakers and her own friends. Cade and Rennik's attraction to each other wars with their priorities, creating believable romantic tension. The action consistently builds: in stakes, in tension and especially in personal costs to characters. While unanswered worldbuilding questions occasionally stress suspension of disbelief, complicated twists and swift pacing keep readers moving forward. The ending completes the major story arc while still leaving a few (mostly logistical) questions about what's next for the remainders of humanity. Fast and intense, both in action and emotions-readers who liked Entangled will love its sequel. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 Cade and her feisty band of friends continue their battle against the Unmakershumans who have systematically rooted out all feelings and are on a genocide mission to wipe out what they consider to be their emotionally-challenged counterparts. In this sequel to Entangled (2013), the author's voice does, on occasion, become overly earnest in a way that can throw readers out of the story, but Capetta's characters are flawed, complicated, and genuinely engaging, and there is plenty of action to complement the romances, friendships, and dedication to a bigger ideal. Start at the first book to fully appreciate this space opera in the tune of TV's Firefly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)