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Liked It “Very exciting idea. Better for younger say high school age than for adults. But good overall book.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “This is a young adult book full of teenage angst and I am not the target audience. I did not enjoy it. The plot was stupid and made no sense (how could two worlds evolve exactly the same but one has no medicine?) and the ending didn't resolve many of the loose ends.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“Young Adult novel written by one of my favorite authors and her daughter. It is sci-fi--teens literally fall into an alternate universe where medicine and medical treatments are illegal and must find their way back to the real world. Subplot deals with teenage relationships. Teens should love it. ”
Pat F wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Very exciting idea. Better for younger say high school age than for adults. But good overall book.”
RioRanchoReader wrote this review Saturday, November 14 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“On the road for a school excursion to the Carlsbad Caverns, one teacher and three teens in their van crash. The teens manage to escape, and seek shelter in a small cave when it begins to rain. But inside, they fall into nothingness...but awaken in their beds as if the whole thing never happened. In fact, their school trip is still a week away. But the world isn't the same now: there's no medical care. If someone gets sick or badly injured, it's pretty much a death sentence. Kaida Hutchenson doesn't want her new friend Joy to die, and so she must track down some forbidden research whilst also pay a spill dealer for something that could save Joy's life. But now all of their lives are at risk of being murdered.
Tez Miller wrote this review Friday, November 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
If you've never read a parallel universe novel before, here's a great place to start. The characters may be cardboard cut-outs, but the social conscience is a winner, and this could be an ideal wake-up call for teens to stand up and start caring for their own health, and the well-being of others. Though a bit dragging in parts, it's a killer premise.”
“ Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com
TeensReadToo.com wrote this review Sunday, November 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I have to start off this review stating that I wasn't 100% certain how to classify PRISM. It's one of those stories that definitely transcends more than one category. It's part science fiction with the parallel dimensions. It's contemporary with the tentative love story. But I guess, overall, mostly it would be a mystery as Kaida, Zeke, and Joy try to figure out how they got to where they are and how will they get back home.
Kaida Hutchenson (many characters resort to calling her Hutchenson throughout the story) is dreading the class trip to Carlsbad Caverns. It's over a ten hour drive and she's going to be stuck in a van with the jock, Zeke Anderson, and the smoking loner, Joy Tallon. She'd give anything to be in the van with her best friend, Maria, and her sort of boyfriend, Iggy.
On the drive, Kaida's van winds up separated from the others. The drive lulls the three to sleep, only to harshly awaken them when the van crashes, flips, and starts to catch fire. The three make it out relatively unscathed, only for them to realize that their teacher has been left inside and is surely dead, as the fire grows out of control.
Seeking shelter from the cold and rain, the three teens enter a cave. But it's within this cave that their world changes.
Kaida wakes up in her own bed, confused by the bizarre dream she had. She opens her medicine cabinet in the bathroom to retrieve some pain medication, only to find it barren of all medications and containing a bizarre tube: Coyote Cream. She vaguely recalls buying it on a trip somewhere. But when her brother comes into the bathroom and sees the tube, he freaks out, empties the contents, and asks Kaida where she got it and what was she thinking?
It's just this sort of bizarre experience that seems to keep happening to Kaida. She's in her familiar surroundings, but it just doesn't seem right. When she approaches Zeke, and he starts to say he had a dream about her...the two slowly come to realize they're involved in something, but not sure what. And when the two speak the same name, Joy, at the same time, they know that something is wrong.
With the help of a new student, Ozzy, the teens learn about the world they're now stuck in - a world where health care is nonexistent and medication is illegal and called "spills." They believe the only way back to the world they know is to get back to the cave they sought shelter in the first time.
With a very Twilight Zone feeling to the story, PRISM is a book that will keep you entranced until the very end. The concept of a world without any health care is frightening. With dark images of the clean-up crew and a town of dying and ill people, you'll be left to wonder how society survived without everyday staples such as pain medications or antibiotics.
PRISM will make you thankful you're in this world and not the alternative one that Kaida, Zeke, and Joy found themselves.”
“Great, great book! Exelent page turner, amazing story”
Elizabeth G wrote this review Sunday, October 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I am not a science fiction kind of person, but I enjoyed this book. Quick read, full of adventure, couldn't put it down. It is about a parallel universe where health treatment is illegal. Good teen read.”
Kelly W wrote this review Monday, September 21 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This is a young adult book full of teenage angst and I am not the target audience. I did not enjoy it. The plot was stupid and made no sense (how could two worlds evolve exactly the same but one has no medicine?) and the ending didn't resolve many of the loose ends.”
Gevera Bert P wrote this review Monday, August 10 2009. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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