Thursday, March 14, 2013
by Jade Kerrion
Published: 12.21.12
Pages: 144
When you choose your friends, you also choose your enemies. Seventeen-year old Dee wants nothing more than to help her twin brother, Dum, break free from the trauma in their childhood and speak again, but the only person who can help Dum is the alpha empath, Danyael Sabre, whom the U.S. government considers a terrorist and traitor. The search for Danyael will lead Dee and Dum from the sheltered protection of the Mutant Affairs Council and into the violent, gang-controlled heart of Anacostia. Ensnared by Danyael's complicated network of friends and enemies, Dee makes her stand in a political and social war that she is ill equipped to fight. What can one human, armed only with her wits and pepper spray, do against the super-powered mutants who dominate the Genetic Revolution? America, nevertheless, is ripe for transformation. Exhausted by decades of belligerence between humans and their genetic derivatives--the clones, in vitros, and mutants--society is on the verge of falling apart or growing up. Dee, with her sassy attitude and smart mouth, is the unwitting pebble that starts the avalanche of change. In her quest to help her brother become normal, Dee will finally learn what it means to be extraordinary.
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Jade Kerrion unites cutting-edge science and bioethics with fast-paced action in her award-winning Double Helix series. Perfection Unleashed and its sequels, Perfect Betrayal and Perfect Weapon, have been described as “a breakout piece of science fiction” and drawn rave reviews for their originality and vision. Her latest novel, When the Silence Ends, is a Young Adult spinoff the Double Helix series. She is also the author of Earth-Sim, a whimsical and compelling view of Earth’s history through the eyes of the two students assigned to manage our planet.
Don't they both sound fabulous? Make sure to check the book out and say hi to Jade!
Guest Post: The Power of Ordinary
Young Adult novels abound with extraordinary protagonists. I’m sure that in your travels through books, you’ve met the child of destiny who’s fated to end a war and unite two worlds. You’ve probably also met the quiet kid who doesn’t quite fit in, who discovers his amazing super powers and uses them to save the world. Of course, there’s the protagonist who stumbles upon a mysterious world that coexists alongside her reality, populated by sparkly vampires and handsome werewolves.
I’ve found two major themes running through most YA novels: the first, as I noted above, the extraordinary teenage protagonist, and second, the adults are frequently the enemy, ranging from indifferent parents to murderous despots. Neither of those observations particularly align with my observations of life.
I don’t know about you, but most days, I feel pretty ordinary. When I did go to school, I was something of a geek and somewhat lacking in hand-eye coordination (which is why I danced ballet instead of playing sports involving balls of any sort.) My superpower was an ability to excel on standardized tests (try writing that into a book…) And I don’t know how you feel about it, but adults weren’t really the enemies. Yes, my parents were (and still are) occasionally tiresome, but they were always supportive and loving. The worst thing you could have said about my teachers is that some of them were boring, but still, they were all decent people. Adults have never been the enemy—at least, adults should never be perceived collectively as the enemy. As an adult now, I should know.
So, when I set out to write a YA spin off my award-winning Double Helix series, featuring Dee and her twin brother, Dum, I wanted my readers to appreciate adults in more roles than that of the enemy. Some of them are, of course, but like the real world, there’s a vast spectrum of them; some adults even become Dee’s friends and mentors. More importantly though, I wanted my readers to appreciate the power of ordinary.
Dee, the protagonist of When the Silence Ends, is ordinary. She’s seventeen years old, and she has ordinary concerns that include holding down two jobs to pay the rent, making sure her brother gets to his speech therapy class, and wondering how to pay for college. She lives in a world populated by extraordinary people who possess psychic powers, but unlike Bella who had the good fortune to be loved by a vampire, Dee can never become that kind of extraordinary, now or ever.
Is it possible to write a book about an ordinary person having an extraordinary effect on the world? Of course! We see those heroes around us every day—people, just like us, making an extraordinary difference in our world. I think those heroes have several traits that make them special.
They know how to work with others. Rarely are heroes solitary loners. More often than not, they’re talented leaders who understand the value of listening as much as they do the importance of speaking. They inspire with their vision, but they are not too proud to listen to advice or accept help. Most importantly, they care for something beyond themselves.
Dee is that special person—a perfectly ordinary person, surrounded by psychically talented mutants—who finds her own brand of extraordinary. Inspired by her love for her brother Dum, and armed with nothing more than her wits and pepper spray, she navigates the social and political minefield of a world transformed by the Genetic Revolution. In so doing, she changes her life and the lives of those around her.
Here’s to a celebration of being normal and to the power of ordinary. Three cheers for Dee. If she can do it, so can we.
Super Duper Excerpt
Dee stalked over to her brother. For a long, silent moment, she stared into his familiar face as he bopped along to whatever music was blasting from his iPod. He did not even look at her. When had he become a stranger? She smacked him on the side of his head and remained unmoved when he raised his aggrieved gaze to her. “Are you saying that this place is okay for you?” she asked, raising her voice so that he could hear her through his ear pods.
He nodded.
“Are you sure about that? We’re moving here so that you can train with Danyael. I’d hate for you to feel inconvenienced about leaving the comfort and protection of the council for this dump.”
He frowned, his eyebrows drawing together, and turned away.
All right, so he understood sarcasm. How was she supposed to argue with a person who would not argue back, but who could hurt her just by walking away? Dee was still scowling and blinking back the tears from her eyes when Jessica returned with an armful of cleaning supplies. Dee ignored Jessica’s compassionate glance. “I thought Danyael said he worked all day. I didn’t think he would be around.”
“He isn’t.”
“You broke into his apartment?”
Jessica put the cleaning supplies on the grimy countertop in the kitchen. She tapped the side of her head. “I flipped the lock on his door. I did tell him, though.”
“Before or after you broke in?”
Jessica cocked her head to the side. “Why are you so uptight about stuff like that?”
“Because when I do it, I run the risk of being caught and labeled a criminal. You do it, and nobody cares.”
“Sure, they care. They just don’t notice.”
“And you don’t care?”
“Look, I got his permission. Who cares if I got it a microsecond before or after I flipped the lock? You need to chill out.” Jessica snatched up a spray bottle and a rag, and stomped off toward the bathroom.
With a sponge in hand and her teeth clenched, Dee scrubbed out the dirty brown spots on the kitchen counter. Jeez, I’m becoming my mother. Except that Mom had never been a nag. When she wasn’t sunk in depression, Mom had been cool, even though she had been a mutant. Dee cast a narrow-eyed glare at her brother, who was washing down the windows. Mom had not been an alpha mutant; she had not possessed the prerequisite weirdness that accompanied most alpha mutants.
I am not weird. Jessica’s irate voice snapped through her head.
Dee hurled the sponge into the sink and stalked into the bathroom. For a long and silent moment, she stared at the rag, apparently under the control of an invisible hand, as it scrubbed down the shower tiles. She looked back at Jessica who sat on the closed lid of the toilet bowl. “And that’s not weird?”
“No, it’s who I am, and I don’t like being called ‘weird.’”
“Fine, but that—” She pointed at the hardworking rag. “—is not normal.”
“What’s not normal is how gross the shower is. I’m not stepping in there to scrub it out.”
Dee’s passing glance at the shower became a hard look, and she chuckled. “Is that green thing in the corner alive?”
“Yes, and it’s really close to sentient thought. In a year, it might be able to talk.”
Unlike Dum.
Jessica’s gaze darted to Dum and then flashed back to Dee. She switched to a telepathic conversation. He can talk, you know. I asked Danyael. He said there wasn’t anything wrong with Dum physically.
I know. The problem is just in Dum’s head. What else did Danyael tell you about my brother?
Jessica shrugged. If you want to know, you can ask Danyael directly. It’s not like it’s a secret.
Who knew what other telepathic and empathic conversations were taking place around her? It sucked to be human in a world dominated by super-powered alpha mutants, and worse, she could do nothing about it.
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