May 23, 2022
Monroe Howes’s frenetic if flawed debut imagines a dystopia in which people “awoken” from cryogenic sleep face a brutal extermination campaign. Outlaw “Resurrectionists” bring 23-year-old Alabine Rivers back to life 101 years after she died from cancer and had her body frozen in 2020. Reanimation has been declared illegal and the “awoken” are killed on sight in the reformed United America, where traditional gender norms reign and cultural and religious differences are repressed. The Resurrectionists, stationed at a camp in the largely deserted Chicago, explain to Alabine that she’s the poster child for awoken rights because of her boyfriend Max Green’s impassioned activism in support of reanimation before his death. Then the Resurrectionists’ leaders are arrested, spurring a failed rescue attempt during which government agents capture Alabine. Resisting the secretary of science’s demand that she betray her comrades, she escapes and becomes the leader of a Resurrectionist cell that’s determined to disrupt the president’s plans to blow up a massive cryogenic storage facility in Atlanta. However, when Alabine finds out Max’s body is being stored in New York, she decides it’s more important to travel there to reanimate him, setting up a showdown between Alabine and her supporters over their strategy. Monroe Howes’s inventive worldbuilding holds interest, but a few too many close calls and fortuitous escapes stretch believability, and the meaty ideas get lost in the jumbled plot. This doesn’t live up to its intriguing premise. Agent: Meredith Miller, UTA.
June 1, 2022
A resurrected cancer patient must fight for her right to exist in this speculative fiction debut. Shortly after Alabine Rivers falls in love with Max Green, she discovers she has lymphoma. Her oncologist is initially optimistic, but when it becomes clear that Alabine is going to die at age 23, she and Max start fundraising for her only remaining option: cryogenics. The plan is for CryoLabs to preserve and maintain Alabine's body until science finds a way to cure her and bring her back--hopefully no more than a few decades from now. It comes as a surprise, then, when Alabine regains consciousness a century later in an abandoned cryo clinic swarming with armed soldiers. Rebels dubbed Resurrectionists spirit Alabine away and reveal that the eastern half of the former U.S. is now United America, a fiercely nationalistic, aggressively anti-technology country that forbids the revivification of cryogenically preserved humans despite the fact that there are millions. Upon arriving at a Chicago refugee camp full of fellow "Awoken," Alabine learns that resurrection was actually legal for quite some time thanks to a campaign waged by Max and centered on her. The U.A.'s president intends to soon destroy a large Atlanta cryo facility and its contents, effectively committing genocide, so the Resurrectionists woke Alabine to help sway public opinion. Alabine protests--until the rebels disclose that Max is also frozen, and they plan to liberate and resuscitate him, as well. Howes thoughtfully extrapolates from current events to create a chilling, all-too-plausible future. Vividly sketched, deeply sympathetic characters and high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled plotting propel the tale to a cathartic close. Intelligent, action-packed, and emotionally charged.
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July 1, 2022
In 2021, a young woman with terminal cancer decides to have her body cryogenically preserved, hoping that the future will hold a cure for her disease. Medical technology and political ideology can be uneasy companions, as is the case when, 100 years later, Alabene is reanimated by a shadowy group of rebels called Resurrectionists, whose mission is to save the millions of people who have frozen their bodies. The Awoken, as they're known, are considered illegal, relentlessly hunted by a government that espouses democracy but is in reality a totalitarian regime, using the Awoken as a convenient scapegoat for society's problems. Alabene joins the rebels and embarks on a dangerous mission to liberate the Awoken, all while desperately searching for her lost love, the man who supported her throughout her illness. Documentary filmmaker Howes' debut novel treats readers to a reflective, futuristic adventure story that's full of twists and turns while also offering thoughtful commentary on issues that are all too real in our here and now: medical ethics, equity and inclusion, and personal freedom.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.