Booklist Reviews
On her twelfth birthday, M. wakes up in a coffin. Though she is strapped down, she manages to fight herself free and then realizes she has no memory of who she is or where she is or why she has been in the coffin. She quickly rescues another girl and, together, they rescue still others, all of them as ignorant of their situation as M., but all of them claiming it is their twelfth birthday, though all of them appear, physically, to be in their late teens. And then all of them, oddly, look to M. as their de facto leader. Her job is to lead them to safety and an escape from what appears to be an underground maze filled with shudder-inducing skeletons and desiccated corpses. Will it soon be their turn to die? Volume one of Sigler's planned Generations Trilogy is a smartly written, ingeniously plotted, and suspense-filled thriller that will leave readers guessing until the surprising denouement and then anxious to learn more in the forthcoming volume two. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.
PW Annex Reviews
Sigler opens his Generations trilogy with a wallop: Em wakes up trapped in a coffin and must break out from the inside. Once free, she discovers others like her, all believing they are 12 years old, despite bodies that suggest otherwise and strange circular markings on their foreheads. Elected as leader of the confused and amnesic group, Em tries to keep the peace in the face of hallways that lead nowhere, flesh-eating pigs, corpses by the dozen, and charred, red-eyed monsters. As the group disintegrates into warring factions, Sigler (the Infected trilogy) shifts gears into science fiction, a jarring move that leaves many unanswered questions, such as why only certain individuals have the power to open rooms, in addition to confusing glimpses of the crisis that led to the teens' entombment. Grotesque scenes abound, as does the author's tendency to recapitulate plot points through Em's interior thoughts. Still, the burgeoning love triangle between single-circle Em, half-dark circle O'Malley, and circle-star Bishop offers intrigue, as does Em's tortured consciousness over her "savage" self. Ages 14–up. (July)
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