cover image Wuftoom

Wuftoom

Mary G. Thompson. Clarion, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-547-63724-2

In this wildly imaginative debut, Thompson creates a strange world of bizarre underground species at war with one another. Caught in the middle is Evan, a seventh-grader who has been slowly transforming into an inhuman creature ever since he stepped in a puddle of pink goo two years earlier. As he nears the end of his involuntary evolution into one of the amorphous, wormlike Wuftoom, he’s recruited by the enigmatic Vitflies as a spy, a role he quickly comes to question. While Evan acclimates to his new nature and hungers, he’s torn between loyalty to his new people and the life he left behind, forced to make a choice that could alter the balance of power underground. Dark and unsettling, Thompson’s adventure presents a break from the same-old-same-old by creating something utterly new and weird—sexy YA paranormal this is not. While some plot elements, such as Evan’s body-swapping jaunts, feel underexplored, this is a tale to jolt readers out of their complacency, where characters change in unfamiliar ways with no guarantee of a happy ending. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (May)