Review by Booklist Review
Sixteen-year-old Amina is furious at her parents for forcing her to attend a tony private school, the Gardner Academy. Furious, that is, until she begins to make friends, especially four: shy, innocent Wyatt; fashionista Chloe; handsome environmentalist Hunter; and enigmatic, scary Jo. Together, this clutch of five brainy teens--all, in their own ways, determined to save the world--form a club they call the Eucalyptus Society. They decide that each of them will devise a game the others must solve; the one who solves the most wins. Things take a serious turn, however, when someone begins playing cruel pranks on them: naked pictures of Chloe are posted on social media, for example. To further complicate things, the friends' relationships begin to turn romantic: Amina develops a huge crush on Hunter; Hunter hooks up with Chloe, as does Jo. Only Wyatt seems immune--or is he? Falkoff (Questions I Want to Ask You, 2018) does a beautiful job of plotting, devising one of those rare books you can't put down. But even better than story is getting to know the highly individual, fully developed characters, who, as a group, also bring racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity to the narrative. Teens looking for a character-driven novel with a touch of mystery can't do better than this.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Amina struggles with horrific nightmares involving a fire and the destruction of her family's synagogue. She obsessively researches anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and the rise of the Third Reich, which worries her parents, who seek out a private school in Vermont to help break the cycle Amina has fallen into. At Gardner Academy, Amina meets a group of students of various races who share her fears regarding the end of the world; together they form the Eucalyptus Society. They meet in a fallout shelter located beneath the president's house and design games to teach and test one another in survival skills, such as foraging, packing a bag, safely attending a protest, and living without electricity. As the semester progresses, each member of the group is targeted by a mysterious stranger who seems to know their deepest, darkest secrets. Secrets and lies are circulated among the entire student body with embarrassing results. The new friends begin to wonder just how much they can trust one another; then one of their own goes missing, and suddenly they are playing a real game of survival. This suspenseful novel is packed with big ideas, and its strength lies in the well-crafted dialogue that showcases young people thoughtfully engaged in the exploration of topics ranging from environmentalism to racism. VERDICT A page-turner that will get readers thinking about issues facing the world today and may even spur them to activism.--Samantha Lumetta, P.L. of Cincinnati and Hamilton Cty.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Teens prepare themselves for catastrophes. High school sophomore Amina, half-Israeli and all Jewish, has had nightmares ever since someone threw a Molotov cocktail through her synagogue's window. Now a scholarship student at an upscale boarding school, Amina finds solace in a new group of friends and the Eucalyptus Society, a club in which they take turns creating competitive challenges focused on building knowledge and skills that will help them survive when the world inevitably ends. This unbalanced novel offers great potential: a minor mystery, budding romance, complicated friendships, and the all-too-believable premise that today's teens have fears about the future that extend far beyond college and career choices. But the way Amina's first-person narration unfolds makes events feel recapped, diluting their impact for readers. Frequent overt exposition and more attention to academic, financial, and social stresses than to the plot-driving challenges result in a pace much like that of a pre--climate change glacier. The final chapters, which include more focus on the mystery, bring a sense of genuine emotional investment for Amina as well as readers and give some dimension to Amina's somewhat diverse friend group, whose complex familial situations often stand in for character development. Timely to a fault, the veiled but obvious references to current politics may age badly. Squandered potential. (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
