PLOT: A small New Jersey town is rocked by a disastrous phenomenon. Mara Carlyle’s senior year is just beginning when Katelyn Ogden blows up—literally—during pre-calc. After the blood is cleaned off the walls and the class tries to move on, another student pops like a balloon during a therapy session. And then another combusts on the football field during the big game. The spontaneous combustions spread through the senior class in Mara’s suburban town, claiming kids of all colors, creeds, and class, seemingly sparing no one. No one but Mara, that is. In the following days, as school administrators scramble to provide counseling and answers, more seniors explode. News crews, bloggers, and doomsday fanatics from across the nation begin lining the streets and requesting interviews. The world watches and speculates via the internet: What were the common denominators between the dead seniors? Were they all using drugs? Were they all gay? As more kids explode, each theory falls apart. Seniors of varying ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations continue to combust every few days. As the teen and her friends do their best to adapt to the increasingly absurd circumstances surrounding them, what will happen to them all? Will they survive, live to fulfill their future lives? Or just die, popping like a red balloon. The author has no trouble pushing these characters through hell, but the book reaches true greatness when readers see them on the other side and explore what’s left of them. Subplots involving an opportunistic scientist, a foul-mouthed president, and a badass FBI agent push this one into must-read territory. Now, as far as finding out why the kids were combusting…I’ve read the whole book and I still couldn’t tell you how it happened, AND I GUESS THAT'S WHY Aaron Starmer does a brilliant job of detailing this superb book with angst and guts, literally, lots, and lots of guts. It is a wicked ride-along for the reader. FINAL THOUGHTS: This is a blood-soaked, laugh-filled, tear-drenched, endlessly compelling read. Truly the smartest and funniest book about spontaneous combustion you will ever have the pleasure of digesting.
4/5 STARS
by