Abstract
Reviewed by: Subject Seven April Spisak Moore, James A. Subject Seven. Razorbill, 2011. [336p.] Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-59514-304-4 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 9-12. It's just a sci-fi fact that when you try to build the ultimate military weapon, it's going to come back to haunt you. In this case, Subject Seven escapes the cruel experiments he has endured, leaving many dead and wounded in his wake, and he spends the next several years growing up, trying to keep the other person who occupies his body at bay, and waiting for revenge. Eventually, Joe (a name he picks as serviceable and anonymous) gathers four other teens who, like him, seem normal but harbor deadly assassins who share their physical bodies and who can be awakened with a simple command. Joe, the alpha, has been struggling for years to balance his "normal" and murderous selves, but the others are only just beginning to adjust when the scientists in charge begin the first of several attempts to destroy the evidence permanently. The teens, a motley crew of kids thrown together in their shared horror at their situation, are engaging and well developed. Unfortunately, the whole premise is shaky to the point of distraction, as the kids undergo Incredible Hulk–style transformations in mere seconds (one grows not only bulk but over a foot of height), and it's implausibly convenient that scientists leave them alone for years, only to suddenly deploy military-style force at the first tiny hint of their existence. Nevertheless, teens seeking a macho, lightning-paced book that favors grit over science will happily dive into this violent world where the good guys are [End Page 246] the bad guys, and the bad guys are just cruelly formed accidents who are merely trying to survive. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Published Version
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