Publishers Weekly
Two-time Edgar Award–winner Klavan (True Crime) works the YA category with a gripping story narrated by Will Peterson, a teen on a youth mission trip. Will has a jaded view of the group, until building a wall for an orphanage turns into a rush for survival in a fictional Central American country crumbling into civil war. Extensive early character description slows the story’s takeoff; characters efficiently develop in action by conquering fears and bonding while being chased by rebel leader Mendoza. With help from a discharged U.S. Marine, the group navigates everything from snakes to firing squads to escape the country. The best part is the narrator, a sort of more hopeful and kindhearted Holden Caulfield, who finds himself in binds that lead him to make tough choices in the heat of the moment: “And I—Will Peterson—sixteen years old—from the quiet little town of Spencer’s Grove, California... I had just killed a man.” Klavan turns up the heat for YA fiction, and this book will be a hot Christmas gift this season. Ages 12–up. (Nov.)¦
From the Publisher
'Fast-paced with multiple threats, genuine tension and lots of machine guns."--Kirkus Reviews
'Klavan turns up the heat for YA fiction...'--Publishers Weekly
'This book will appeal to anyone who is looking for a fast-paced adventure story in which teens must do some fast thinking to survive."--Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA --School Library Journal
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up—This gripping novel will hold readers' attention from the opening pages until the end. Will Peterson is one of five members of a team that has traveled to a fictional country with an unstable government in Central America. Their job on this Christian outreach mission was to rebuild a wall of the school that was destroyed by the Volcanoes, the local gang of rebels. The book opens with the team still in the small town waiting to go home after completing the mission. Just as ex-marine Palmer Dunn enters the cantina to pick the group up, the rebels rush into town to take over. Palmer, Will, and his friends are imprisoned and must find a way to escape. Gunshots, machine guns, and killing ensue. The group finds a way out of every harrowing situation, but there are consequences. Not all of them make it home. Klavan's Christian bent comes through in the story as Will's thoughts are peppered with his feelings about God and the men who try to inflict violence upon his friends as well as death, which the group faces many times over during the course of their escape. This book will appeal to anyone who is looking for a fast-paced adventure story in which teens must do some fast thinking to survive.—Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA
Kirkus Reviews
"We came to Costa Verdes to build a wall. I just wish I could tell you that all of us made it home alive." Members of a church-group mission to rebuild a school in a Central American nation find their flight home delayed by a violent revolution sweeping the countryside. Teenage Everyman Will Peterson narrates a struggle for survival alongside several stock characters (such as a sweet but shallow pretty girl, a well-meaning but out-of-touch youth pastor and an intellectual, professorial America-blaming idealist, Jim). Socialist-sympathizing Jim contrasts with pragmatic former U.S. Marine action hero Palmer. The transparency of Klavan's political agenda is in part mitigated by an increasing focus on the emotional and spiritual lives of the more fleshed-out characters on their journey through jungles and captivity. Will, when he's not trying too hard to be a typical teen so readers can identify with him, is thoughtful and self-possessed. Through a blooming mentor-mentee relationship, he learns the meaning of heroism. Background on the political situation between the rebels and the government (plus history of Cold War CIA involvement) is deployed as necessary, keeping the narration personal and immediate. The resolution suffers from a disappointing lack of denouement, especially considering how far the characters have come. Fast-paced with multiple threats, genuine tension and lots of machine guns. (Adventure. 12-17)
