Friday, April 10, 2015

Tunnel Vision by Susan Adrian



Jake has powers. No one knows about it except his dad and his grandfather. The former is dead, the latter lives in a secluded cabin in New York. Jake is a senior in high school and his life is full of school work, tennis practice and working hard to get into his preferred colleges.

 One night at a house party against his better judgment he uses his powers and freaks his friends out. Even worse, word leaks and then all kinds of strange suited people begin following him. Soon he makes a deal with a strange organization who promise to help him harness his powers to help save people from bad guys. Part of the deal involves some of the suit's "handlers" embedding themselves in Jake's life.


This novel is engrossing because the tension between Jake and his handlers is apparent. He chafes at the extent to which they come into his life. It is not only that they encroach upon his privacy but the transition is so sudden and so seamless. Jacob has been taught all his life to respect authority, moreso since his father was in the service and was proud to serve his country. This group of grown ups is not entirely trustworthy however and slowly Jake begins to discover some ugly truths.

As you would expect there are some twists along the way and Jacob has had to make a series of very tough decisions by the end of the story.This novel is well-written and balances elements of  espionage, conspiracy theories, current events, teenage drama and then some. I highly recommend it for teens aged 14+.

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