Children of the Earth

Gr 9 Up—In this follow-up to End Times (Penguin, 2014), the people of Carbon County still consider Daphne a prophet, but since she helped deliver her cousin Janie's inexplicably stillborn baby, they are even more wary of her than before. She's secretly meeting Owen for make-out sessions, and she has terrible visions that make her wonder if he is evil. Janie is drinking herself into oblivion, and her husband Doug couldn't be less interested. The mesmerizing Luna has opened a dance club called The Vein, and is finally able to round up the complete group of her brothers and sisters of the Children of the Earth. Unfortunately, Owen is among that number, and Daphne has some tough choices to make. Her lover, or the fate of the world? The brief moments of levity peppered throughout the previous installment are absent here. Human sacrifice, betrayal, orphaned children—this is one dark tale. The country bumpkin nature of the Carbon County residents is played up almost to the point of being distracting, but the plot is quick, and well paced, and the Daphne/Owen romance is sizzling.