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A review by gulshanbatra
Cleo Porter and the Body Electric by Jake Burt
5.0
An absolutely perfect story, that's surprisingly prescient and also immensely enjoyable.
I haven't read many YA / middle-grade books, but the jacket blurb on this one caught my attention. The plot is simple enough - if you knew you were in the Matrix, and you found out you had a task that only you could do, and you were given the choice of the Red or the Blue pill, which one would you choose?
Sounds familiar? Needless to say, I made countless comparisons to the fabled Matrix plotlines, and came away that much more impressed by this book. Cloe (sounds like Neo!) is an almost-teen who locates a wrinkle in the fabric of her reality, and realizes she is unable to convince anyone else even to the existence of the wrinkle, far less address it. She is old repeatedly - a wrinkle like the one she believes to have found is impossible, and therefore can't need to be addressed. Doesn't take much to convince her, but this is where the mind of a thirteen-year-old comes into play. Doesn't take much to impress upon a highly impressionable thirteen-year-old that the world needs saving, and that only she can save it (!).
Once we get past that initial stage of incredulity, the story becomes into a rollicking adventure that's bound to remind you the best of Bond, Bourne, and Neo - all rolled into one.
The writing is very fast, keeping with the pace such a story needs, and there are enough surprises to keep you hooked in, all the way to the equally impressive denouement.
There are very few actual characters in the story, which is as it should be in such a story. The range of actions and behaviors explored is what makes this a clever take on all those other adventurists... but what made this truly fantastic was the fact that we're living in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is eerily similar to whatever led to the world Cleo inhabits. It makes you shiver a little, even if inadvertently, and wonder what we're hurtling towards.
But then you realize as long is Cleo is OK, you'll be OK.
And she is. OK, that is.
For the most part.
I haven't read many YA / middle-grade books, but the jacket blurb on this one caught my attention. The plot is simple enough - if you knew you were in the Matrix, and you found out you had a task that only you could do, and you were given the choice of the Red or the Blue pill, which one would you choose?
Sounds familiar? Needless to say, I made countless comparisons to the fabled Matrix plotlines, and came away that much more impressed by this book. Cloe (sounds like Neo!) is an almost-teen who locates a wrinkle in the fabric of her reality, and realizes she is unable to convince anyone else even to the existence of the wrinkle, far less address it. She is old repeatedly - a wrinkle like the one she believes to have found is impossible, and therefore can't need to be addressed. Doesn't take much to convince her, but this is where the mind of a thirteen-year-old comes into play. Doesn't take much to impress upon a highly impressionable thirteen-year-old that the world needs saving, and that only she can save it (!).
Once we get past that initial stage of incredulity, the story becomes into a rollicking adventure that's bound to remind you the best of Bond, Bourne, and Neo - all rolled into one.
The writing is very fast, keeping with the pace such a story needs, and there are enough surprises to keep you hooked in, all the way to the equally impressive denouement.
There are very few actual characters in the story, which is as it should be in such a story. The range of actions and behaviors explored is what makes this a clever take on all those other adventurists... but what made this truly fantastic was the fact that we're living in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is eerily similar to whatever led to the world Cleo inhabits. It makes you shiver a little, even if inadvertently, and wonder what we're hurtling towards.
But then you realize as long is Cleo is OK, you'll be OK.
And she is. OK, that is.
For the most part.