Here is the first sentence "Of all the ways they'd tried to kill him on Base Lab 9, Brinx figured the closest HyperHelix might ever come to success was breakfast." And the comforting familiarity of breakfast (with its nasty smell and cafeteria setting) makes everything seem normal, and the killing part juvenille hyperbole.
Then bang, that pleasant falacey explodes. HyperHelix, a corporate scientific entity, really is trying to kill Brinx (and all the other kids of Base Lab 9). And Brinx is not a familiar, ordinary sort of kid. He and all the others are lab grown, with alien (literally) genes spliced into the human base. The scientists test the advantages of the mutations by forcing the kids to take part in deadly challenges. If they survive long enough, they get out of the base and are flown to a larger settlement.
And Brinx and his one true good friend Jang (of the same mutant type) do get their tickets to ship out, to what they think will be a better future (though no one has actually told them what to expect). But their air ship crashes, and the kids who survive are left to survive alone on an extremely hostile alien planet. Jang isn't in Brinx's group of survives, but Brinx desperately believes he made it, and that they will find each other again.
(spoilers ensue, so if you are interested in what I've said so far, and might want to read the book yourself, now is your chance to go do so!)
What ensues is not a My Side of the Mountain sort of survival story, in which the land gives them what they need. Instead, just about everything on the planet tries to kill them, and often succeeds, so the group is winnowed down to just a handful as they journey overland to the city they were supposed to have been taken. The reader, and the kids, soon realize that every time new flora and fauna is encountered, someone will almost certainly die. But those who don't coalesce into a supportive group, with all their different mutations manifesting in ways that give them hope that they will make it. True friendships between the different groups emerge, breaking down the suspicion and animosity between the various categories of mutated children.
When they finally encounter a haven where they can rest and recover, where one of the original scientists, horrified by what he had helped create, is willing to shelter them, they learn that their original destination was not a place where they'd be given any sort of choice in the rest of their lives. They were, in fact, products destined for sale. And Jang, who did in fact survive, is now one of those products.
Brinx and his small cohort must decide whether to accept a small but safe life, or to seize control of their destinies. And this being a middle grade fantasy book, it's no surprise that they set of to rescue Jang and claim their own lives.
I am willing to bet lots that many young readers, especially gamers, will find this right up their alley! The pulses of deadly action, vividly described and with plenty of horrific elements, and the tricks and turns of how the kids escape, are game-like (in a good way!). And the theme of self-determination, rejecting the plan the grownups have for your life, is very relevant to the target audience. Although, of course, the literal shaping of these fictional kids to serve the purpose of the adults is far more horrific than the average middle grade kid will experience.
So in sort, it's a page-turner that I would not hesitate to offer a sixth grader who likes sci fi/fantasy, and wants something on the fierce side.
disclaimer--review copy received from the publisher, and read in a single sitting on what would otherwise have been a tedious flight.
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