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322 pp.
| Viking |
March, 2014 |
TradeISBN 978-0-670-01554-2$16.99
(4)
4-6
Electively mute Kester, institutionalized in a school for troubled children, lives in a barren dystopia where most animals have died from a "red eye" sickness. One day a cockroach busts him out and sends him on a mission to save the last wild animals from extermination. The fresh premise and Tim Burton–esque tone are promising, but one-note supporting characters and bland prose derail an otherwise successful book.