paradox3 star

 

 

By A.J. Paquette
Random House Children’s Books, 230 pages, $17.99

Paradox by A.J. Paquette is a simply written, fast paced survival story. Ana wakes up not knowing where, or who she is. Learning her name from the tag stuck to her vest, she discovers that she is on an alien planet with a deadline and the instruction “survive”. With the clock ticking down to an unknown event, Ana meets up with the three other teenagers who shared her ship, but is sure they are hiding something from her. Ana wrestles with her amnesia, desperately trying to discover what is going on before it is too late.

Paquette keeps Paradox short and to the point, without a whole lot of padding in the middle. While this tactic keeps the pacing up, it lets other areas of the book fall flat. Ana’s companions, Todd, Ysa, and Chen, are very two dimensional and contribute little to the actual story. Chen and Ysa appear so briefly that the reader has no time to develop an emotional connection before they disappear. They might as well not have been part of the story at all. This is a YA book with potential, but is more appropriate for younger readers of the genre.

Reviewed by Whitney Smyth

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