The Marbury Lens

I "met" Andrew Smith a couple of years ago through a writer's site we both frequented. He had already published his first novel, Ghost Medicine and his second, In The Path Of Falling Objects, was on the way to being published. Still, he always managed to make time for critiques and advice to those of us who were still struggling. By the time The Marbury Lens had been given a release date, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. And let me tell you, it is an exhilarating ride.

From Publisher's Weekly:

In this brutal but highly effective dark fantasy, Smith (In the Path of Falling Objects) tells the story of 16-year-old Jack, who gets drunk at a party and is kidnapped, tortured, and nearly raped by a serial killer. Jack escapes, but when he and his best friend Conner run into the kidnapper the next day, they abduct him in turn and accidentally kill him. Jack is highly traumatized by the experience and refuses to go to police, in part because he and Conner are leaving for England to check out a prep school. When Jack arrives in London, he is accosted by a mysterious stranger who seems to know him and hands him an odd pair of glasses. Looking through them, Jack is transported to the horrendous, postapocalyptic world of Marbury, where he is responsible for two younger boys, and Conner has been transformed into a murderous mutant, further destabilizing Jack's precarious sanity. This bloody and genuinely upsetting book packs an enormous emotional punch. Smith's characters are very well developed and the ruined alternate universe they travel through is both surreal and believable.

This one was hard to put down. I love Jack and pulled for him throughout, even though I didn't expect and would have been disappointed by a happily ever after ending. Every time I thought I had a plot line firmly figured out, I turned out to be completely wrong. How wonderful is that? And that last page you've heard about? Awesome. Questions remain, but I found it very satisfying. I spoke to Andrew the other day and he let me know that the ARCs for his next novel, Stick, should be out in March. My mouth is already watering.

You can catch Andrew on his highly entertaining blog.