Lauren Oliver (Delirium; Liesl & Po) will again sweep up younger readers with her dark and illuminating tale about a girl's odyssey into an eerie underworld to rescue her brother. The novel pulses with great adventure and plenty of heart and features elusive enemies such as those of Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There.
Liza instinctively knows the evil spindlers (strange spider-like beings) have stolen her sweet brother Patrick's soul overnight and left a changeling in his place. Even though not-Patrick appears to know everything Patrick does, his eyes are empty of sparkle, his table manners have improved, and he spells I H-A-T-E Y-O-U with his cereal. Courageous Liza falls down a hole in her basement wall and into the world Below where she lands on the eccentric rat Mirabella. Mirabella offers to guide Liza to the spindlers' nest when Liza promises, "I'll do anything!" Liza must succeed in the spindler queen's test of wills in order to save not only Patrick's soul, but her own.
The six-legged, soul-stealing spindlers with human hands at the ends of their legs are one of the many strange creations Below, where "impossible" is an ugly human word. Some creatures prove to be formidable obstacles, such as the ravenous snakelike scawgs. Others are beautiful, such as the shadowy nocturni that sip dreams from the River of Knowledge and fly out to deliver them to the souls to whom they're wedded. Readers will root for this immeasurably hopeful, dauntless heroine to return home with a brother whose eyes sparkle. --Adam Silvera, reviewer and former bookseller