" A coming-of-age story about two kids in the middle of a war of eldritch horrors from outside spacetime…
Nick Prasad and Joanna “Johnny” Chambers have been friends since childhood. She’s rich, white, and a genius; he’s poor, brown, and secretly in love with her.
But when Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens the primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity.
From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they need to trust each other completely to survive…"
Nick Prasad and Joanna “Johnny” Chambers have been friends since childhood. She’s rich, white, and a genius; he’s poor, brown, and secretly in love with her.
But when Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens the primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity.
From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they need to trust each other completely to survive…"
This is an alternate history, cosmic horror, globe-travelling adventure Science fiction that's primarily a study of the relationship between two young people: Joanna "Johnny" Chambers who is a 17-year old super-genius who has single handedly rewritten the history of the early 2000s with her amazing inventions and discoveries and her best and only friend, Nick Prassad, an ordinary Canadian teenager.
When Johnny invents a new shoebox reactor that seems to generate free energy she also opens a gate into our universe for creatures of cosmic horror known as "Them", to flood in a true Lovecraftian manner. They want Johnny and her invention so that they can enslave humanity and take over the world. So Johnny and Nick go on the run to try and stop them. Pretty basic plot.
However, what was very interesting to me while reading this book was the dynamics displayed between the two characters. Joanna is the pretty, genius,ridiculously wealthy and slightly psychopathic girl Nick has loved for most of his life, after a violent incident brought the two together. Nick and his family are well below Johnny on the economic scale, and by putting us in his head for the whole book, the author gives us a chance to reflect on the “hero”, as well as the myriad ways in which Nick’s and Johnny’s very different experiences affect them as they suffer threats and attacks, and how the fear and anxiety of their situation exacerbates their differences and their feelings for each other. The racial aspect, the references to race, colonialism, and privilege are not incidental, and were a great addition into a Lovecraft inspire Sci-Fi, someone who was so racist and expressed so much racism through his works.
When Johnny invents a new shoebox reactor that seems to generate free energy she also opens a gate into our universe for creatures of cosmic horror known as "Them", to flood in a true Lovecraftian manner. They want Johnny and her invention so that they can enslave humanity and take over the world. So Johnny and Nick go on the run to try and stop them. Pretty basic plot.
However, what was very interesting to me while reading this book was the dynamics displayed between the two characters. Joanna is the pretty, genius,ridiculously wealthy and slightly psychopathic girl Nick has loved for most of his life, after a violent incident brought the two together. Nick and his family are well below Johnny on the economic scale, and by putting us in his head for the whole book, the author gives us a chance to reflect on the “hero”, as well as the myriad ways in which Nick’s and Johnny’s very different experiences affect them as they suffer threats and attacks, and how the fear and anxiety of their situation exacerbates their differences and their feelings for each other. The racial aspect, the references to race, colonialism, and privilege are not incidental, and were a great addition into a Lovecraft inspire Sci-Fi, someone who was so racist and expressed so much racism through his works.
While there are many otherworldly horrors present, it’s the many problems that lie at the heart of their relationship, as well as the very real economic and racial issues between them that affected me the most about this story. I struggled to feel anything but irritation for Johnny, and her often blithe approach, her unthinking dismissal to so much that someone without her options, or skin colour, has to live in the world. However she is a very interesting character, she came across as slightly inhuman. Cold, calculating and deeply unfeeling, but at the same time vulnerable and trying desperately to do good. Nick, while supposed to be the "normal" friend was equally interesting, the mixture of love and hate he felt for Johnny, the anger, the claustrophobic closeness of the friends.
I also need to mention the writing. I really enjoyed it, it got under your skin and made you feel unclean and claustrophobic.
This is imaginative and fun in parts, the banter was great, there where some dated pop culture references that where a bit weird but didn't ruin the book. However, it was a tad long and dragged in points, and something just didn't hit right with me. The ending disappointed me and the two characters, while interesting felt slightly separated from the reader.
Age Rating 13+. Could easily be read, enjoyed and understood by a younger audience.
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