The Terminals

Gr 9 Up—The premise is inventive: terminally ill teens are recruited by a mysterious organization to become medically enhanced secret agents trained to carry out dangerous humanitarian missions for the brief remainder of their lives. Recently diagnosed 19-year-old Cam joins the cause to make a difference before he dies but soon realizes that the organization may have sinister motives in choosing its recruits. The narrative starts out with a bang, but the novel never seems to reach its full potential. The cast of characters is overly large and underdeveloped; it's difficult to care when characters are given a paper-thin backstory and then killed off with little fanfare. Also, there's an uncomfortable tone of misogyny demonstrated when two male characters casually categorize their female companions as "the kind of girl a guy could marry" (because she's good-natured and enjoys baking) versus "I'm guessing she's already had a roll in the sand with just about every [guy here]" (because she's physically attractive and uninhibited). Fans of the spy thriller genre may be pleased by the action-driven plot, but Cam's revelations about the evil organization will come as no surprise to readers, and the end is more predictable than climactic—although it does hint at a sequel. For a more inclusive and empowering book about superpowered young adults, try Dangerous (Bloomsbury, 2014) by Shannon Hale.—Allison Tran, Mission Viejo Library, CA