In this first YA thriller in a planned series, adult author John Sandford and his wife, Michelle Cook, deliver an edge-of-the-seat thriller starring characters we can root for, set in a slightly futuristic world with a chilling premise.
Odin, a genius hacker and animal rights activist, helps break into Singular, a bio-medical research lab, and is horrified to find experiments on live animals and possibly on humans. He narrowly escapes capture, steals some thumb drives and rescues a post-operative dog near death. Odin's 16-year-old sister, Shay, searches for Odin in Los Angeles. She lands in a hostel run by a well-known artist and political provocateur--and finds that she fits right in with the bunch of misfits and former runaways. Shay enlists the help of her new friends to rescue Odin and to expose the dangerous and well-funded Singular.
The authors deliver a fast-paced contemporary action thriller. They populate the story with diverse, well-crafted characters, and reveal them through thoughtful dialogue. Uncaged may be plot-driven, but it is also concerned with activism and animal rights, and gives readers an authentic portrait of vulnerable teens. From a car chase through Malibu to the iconic Hollywood sign, Sandford and Cook offer a realistic and exciting Los Angeles fraught with high-stakes peril. --Nan Shipley, literary scout