The Body Electric

From the neon city of New Venice, the global capital that emerged after the Secessionary Wars, 18-year-old Ella Shepherd faces the grim reality that the nanobots keeping her mother alive are failing. Knowing that her father, killed in his lab by terrorists, cannot save her, and eager to avenge his death, Ella readily agrees when the Prime Administrator of the United Countries asks her to spy on a suspected terrorist by entering the person’s reverie, a dreamlike memory state that she can control. What she finds there offers more questions than answers, suggesting a governmental conspiracy when the androids throughout the city start to self-destruct. Soon Ella joins an underground network led by Jack, a boyfriend she doesn’t remember, and the Prime Administrator’s true motives are revealed. Short chapters, many of which end with cliffhangers, make for addictive reading, and the reverie-within-reverie sequences are vibrantly rendered games of cat and mouse. Though the descriptions run long in places, Revis (Across the Universe) gives a masterly blend of worlds familiar and new in this standalone SF mystery. Ages 14–up. (BookLife)