Review: Edgewood by Karen McQuestion

Edgewood by Karen McQuestion
Published by Indie
Published on: August 21, 2012
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 325
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

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Wandering the dark streets at night is Russ Becker’s way of dealing with his relentless insomnia and the angst of life. But that changes forever the night he witnesses a strange astronomical event, then discovers he’s developed incredible superpowers.

And he’s not alone. Three others in his town—sexy Mallory, arrogant Jameson, and mysterious Nadia—have had the same experience and acquired intriguing powers of their own. As if Mallory isn't special enough with her good looks and high IQ, now she can control peoples’ minds. Jameson thinks he’s the coolest because he moves objects with his thoughts, and shy Nadia struggles to understand her new empathic abilities.

At first the four secretly relish their newfound gifts while keeping them hidden. However, things get serious when they learn they're being hunted by an organization that wants them for its own nefarious purposes. Russ has always picked his battles wisely, but when the bad guys threaten his family, they're about to find out they messed with the wrong teens. What transpires will change all of them in ways they never imagined.

Buy a book and immediately read it? Not unheard of from me, but still pretty rare. I found this one, and was intrigued enough to read, AND not be able to put down this book almost immediately. It’s young adult, but that didn’t take anything away from my enjoyment of this read.

Russ is a fifteen year old that has a bad case of insomnia, so he has taken to the streets of his town(Edgewood)to walk late at night-unbeknownst to his parents. He’s gotten used to all the little quirks of the people whose homes are lit up late at night, and has a usual course we walks each time. One night changes everything for Russ and life for him will never be the same. Sounds pretty dramatic? Actually it really was. After witnessing a strange phenomenon, he begins to acquire some pretty amazing super powers. And then he meets more teenagers just like him.

I think this is the first young adult book(at least that I can remember)that features a teenage boy, that I have read. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but came away pleasantly surprised. Russ is smart, funny, and in lots of ways typical of a boy his age. His interests range from girls to playing games, and then back to girls again. That is until the night that changed his life. Mallory is a fellow classmate and when she sees that he is drawing pictures of what he saw that night, she befriends him, and takes him to meet her friends. Nadia is an almost introverted character due to being horribly scarred on her face, and Jamison thinks because he is a genius that he is better than everyone else. But the three have the same thing in common; they had all been insomniacs the previous year, and had seen the same thing that Russ just experienced. And they all have powers as well. Russ learns all the things that the others have learned-mainly that there is an organization that is trying to recruit any and all teenagers that have experienced the phenomenon. That they will stop at nothing(even murder)to make this happen is a big plot point for this book.

The author’s characterization of teenage boys was fun. Russ would be doing something really serious, only to have things about girls or a particular girl go through his head. Or he would say things that firmly put him into the teenage camp, and then turn around and act very mature. Kind of teetering between a child and adult. Jamison stayed pretty immature throughout the read.

The premise, the characters, the writing, and super fast pacing, kept me turning pages, and it ended up being a less than one day read. I thought about giving it five stars, but had to take away half a star due to the mystery of the phenomenon not being explained in this book. That was disappointing for me. I have already read Wonderlust, the second book in this series, and I enjoyed that one as well. I would recommend this to all young adult/adult science fiction fans or even someone that just wants to read something really different.

Edgewood Series

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