The Tattooed Rats

The premise of Jenkins's latest collaboration, the first in the Renegade Spirits series, is an attention-grabber: a Christian teenager fights for his life and his faith in a world where Christianity has been outlawed and believers are hunted down and punished (or worse). But the execution of this idea makes for a challenging read. A story that seems too futuristic for its setting (the year 2012), an unwieldy cast of characters, and brief, sound-bite-like text passages that jump from character to character are a few of the elements that disrupt the book's narrative flow. While the suspenseful action/adventure tone and soul-searching themes of conformity and tolerance are surefire draws for teens, the target audience may not stick with this volume long enough to get the full message. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)