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WORK TITLE: Escape from Chernobyl
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WEBSITE: http://andy-marino.com/
CITY: Queens
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 361
http://www.parenthetical.net/2011/06/21/review-unison-spark-andy-marino-nov-2011/ http://hcplteenscene.org/2012/02/29/teen-review-unison-spark-by-andy-marino/ http://www.katiesbookblog.com/2011/11/unison-spark-by-andy-marino.html http://www.thestorysiren.com/2011/11/blog-tour-unison-spark-by-andy-marino-giveaway.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1980, in NY; married.
EDUCATION:New York University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, and musician. Guitarist in bands, Sayonara and SleepCrime.
AVOCATIONS:Distance running, playing music, reading.
WRITINGS
Author of 2013 novella, The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter.
SIDELIGHTS
Raised in upstate New York, Andy Marino spent his childhood immersed in imaginative games that honed an early appreciation for story and character. After earning a degree in English from New York University, Marino turned his attention to writing fiction in earnest. His young-adult novels include Unison Spark, Uncrashable Dakota, The Door, and Autonomous. He is also the author of the “The Plot to Kill Hitler” middle-grade historical fiction trilogy. Marino has also written stand-alone novels for middle graders as well as novels for adults.
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In an online Nerd Daily interview with Elise Dumpleton, Marino commented that he first discovered his love for writing in elementary school. As he further noted: “I started writing an epic fantasy novel when I was eleven. I loved the idea of building an endless world with MAPS GALORE. … [T]he book was called The Runes of Illiarm, and it remains mercifully unfinished.”
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Unison Spark was inspired by Marino’s reflections on the growth of online social networks in modern society. In a near-future world, society has fractured, with the wealthy living a leisurely life in the upper regions of Eastern Seaboard City, while the less-fortunate scramble to survive in the dreadful slums of the city’s lower canopy. In rarified areas of the city’s topside, the privileged stay connected via Unison, the largest social network in the world and one that proclaims it knows its users better than they know themselves. Fifteen-year-old Mistletoe, an orphaned dweller in the lower-level slums, wants to become a resident of the upper city and acquire enough money to make the coveted connection with Unison. Her life changes dramatically when she meets Ambrose Truax, the son of the tycoon who owns the giant networking company. Together, the teens uncover a dastardly plot to “upgrade” Unison, an upgrade that will have potentially calamitous effects on both their worlds.
Marino captures reader interest through his use of realistic characters, interesting settings, “a lightning-fast pace, and a firm footing in teens’ fascination with social networks,” wrote Debbie Carton in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly critic called Unison Spark “well written, energetic, and inventive” and a novel that “should appeal to fans of the current crop of dystopian fiction,” while in School Library Journal, Suanne Roush predicted that “readers who are obsessed with social networking sites, or are fans of films such as The Matrix, Tron, and Inception,” will embrace Marino’s fiction debut.
Tapping the parameters of the steampunk genre, which melds past and future in a technologically advanced society bound by the social conventions of early Victorian England, Uncrashable Dakota draws readers into a society where giant airships have replaced oceangoing vessels by the start of the twentieth century; the story echoes the fate of the RMS Titanic, the real-world transatlantic behemoth whose 1912 maiden voyage was doomed. Marino’s hero-protagonist is Hollis Dakota, a thirteen-year-old whose family company, Dakota Aeronautics, began when his grandfather made a discovery that not only shortened the U.S. Civil War but enabled air travel and the creation of enormous floating cities in the sky. Hollis is wary of claims that the company’s flagship craft is fail-safe; his father died in a related tragedy only a few years ago. Teaming up with his stepbrother and with Delia Cosgrove, a young woman who tends to the insects that power the ship, Hollis confronts an entire airship crew when they mutiny and take his widowed mother hostage.
“Friendships are tested throughout this sometimes dark and serious tale,” declared Ava Ehde in a review of Uncrashable Dakota in Voice of Youth Advocates, the critic predicting that “historical fiction, steampunk, and Titanic fans will enjoy this engaging and imaginative work.” A Publishers Weekly critic enjoyed Marino’s presentation of the newly merged Dakota and Castor clans, remarking that the bond forged by the two teen stepbrothers “as they negotiate friendship, brotherhood, and a vicious family feud is soundly drawn.”
Marino’s Autonomous, revolves around a road trip to Arizona’s Moonshadow festival in a prototype driverless, intelligent car named Otto. William manages to win the car and an all-expenses-paid trip for himself and three friends before heading off to college. He takes his tech-savvy neighbor, Christina; his athletic best friend, Daniel; and Daniel’s beautiful and ambitious girlfriend, Melissa, but the trip proves unpredictable as Otto draws on the teens’ electronic footprints, including their use of social media, to determine where to take them next. Revelations of secrets, drinking games, romance, laser tag, car chases, and more make for a rip-roaring journey.
Talking with a Young Entertainment interviewer about whether or not Autonomous should be taken as either an endorsement of or a warning against the possibilities inherent in technology, Marino remarked: “I don’t set out to write cautionary tales, or presume to warn anybody about anything. Human beings are always going to innovate and push the envelope and create amazing things that outpace our ability to really understand what they’re going to change about the way we live. The last thing I want to do is write something preachy, because that’s boring. … I hope readers find the book funny and exciting enough to keep turning pages, and come across a few moments that make them think, or hit close to home.” A Kirkus Reviews writer summed Autonomous up as “a high-tech, twisted Breakfast Club for the social media age.” Rob Bittner, in Booklist, suggested that the novel “will appeal to a niche audience looking for escapism without the full emotional investment of similar danger-fueled, sci-fi adventures.” In School Library Journal, Gilly Yildiz suggested that with William going on “the thrill ride of his life,” the novel makes for “a unique addition to any science fiction collection.”
In 2020 Marino released The Conspiracy, the first volume in a historical fiction trilogy called “The Plot to Kill Hitler.” Marino introduces readers to protagonists Max and Gerta Hoffmann, twelve and thirteen years old, respectively. Max and Gerta are the children of a respected surgeon. Because of their family’s socioeconomic position and because they are not Jewish, they lead lives of privilege. However, Max and Gerta are disturbed as they observe Hitler’s regime persecuting Jewish people where they live in Berlin. When a dying man visits their home late one night, they learn that their parents are part of the resistance. Max and Gerta ask to join them in their efforts. The leader of their resistance cell, Frau Becker, sends them on missions to deliver items to Jews in hiding. The packages contain forged documents that will keep them safe. Max and Gerta find their lives in danger on more than one occasion, but they work together to survive.
A writer in Kirkus Reviews praised Marino’s character development, stating: “The fictional plotters … are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.” Megan Honeycutt, contributor to School Library Journal, described the book as “a quick but intense read that is sure to leave patrons excited for the next installment.” Marino continues the series with the novels The Execution and The Escape.
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In his 2021 middle-grade historical novel, Escape from Chernobyl, Marino takes young readers into the horror of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster when a nuclear reactor in the then Soviet Union exploded, expelling radiation across the nearby town of Pripyat and ultimately over much of Europe. The novel focuses on two young siblings who live in Pripyat, Alina and Lev. Their cousin is a custodian in the nearby nuclear plant and the father of Alina’s best friend, Sofiya, lives only doors away. When Reactor No. 4 explodes in the early hours of April 26, 1986, these two siblings quickly depart from the city along with their parents, who immediately understand the danger. Others in the town remain in place, deceived into believing that all is under control even as a plume of deadly radiation covers the town. But the two siblings and their parents are not in safety, for the Communist government does not want news of the disaster spread. Meanwhile, the friends and families of Lev and Alina have to deal with the disinformation which those in power spread about the disaster. A Publishers Weekly reviewer lauded Escape from Chernobyl, noting that Marino “paints a vivid, if not always fully contextualized, picture of the catastrophe, its dangers, and a government willing to cover it all up.” Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews critic dubbed the novel “[e]xciting, tragic, and gritty.”
Marino debuts as a writer for adults with his 2021 novel, The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, a blend of psychological thriller and horror that might suit older YA readers, as well. The novel follows the desperate efforts of the Sydney of the title to piece together what really happened to her during a home invasion. Her story of surviving the attack differs from the reality the police see, for the attacker is found in her home, dead and badly mutilated. Now Sydney must deal with her own past trauma before the demon inside destroys her. A contributor in Kirkus Reviews was not impressed with this horror novel, noting that it “goes off the rails” toward the end. The contributor concluded: “Content to shock with gore and vague psychological discomfort.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer offered a more positive assessment of this adult debut, noting that when it “juggles devices and themes it doesn’t always manage to catch, but when it works, it’s absolutely devastating.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2011, Debbie Carton, review of Unison Spark, p. 59; November 15, 2013, Jeanne Fredriksen, review of Uncrashable Dakota, p. 48; October 15, 2017, Rob Bittner, review of Autonomous, p. 50.
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2011, review of Unison Spark; October 1, 2013, review of Uncrashable Dakota; April 15, 2018, review of Autonomous; February 15, 2020, review of The Conspiracy; August 1, 2021, review of The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess; October 15, 2021, review of Escape from Chernobyl.
Publishers Weekly, September 26, 2011, review of Unison Spark, p. 75; October 14, 2013, review of Uncrashable Dakota, p. 63; January 29, 2018, review of Autonomous, p. 190; May 24, 2021, review of The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, p. 57; November 1, 2021, review of Escape from Chernobyl, p. 86.
School Library Journal, March, 2012, Suanne Roush, review of Unison Spark, p. 166; January, 2014, Heather M. Campbell, review of Uncrashable Dakota, p. 86; November, 2017, Gilly Yildiz, review of Autonomous, p. 90; April, 2020, Megan Honeycutt, review of The Conspiracy, p. 131.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2011, Paula J. Gallagher, review of Unison Spark, p. 515; December, 2013, Ava Ehde, review of Uncrashable Dakota, p. 79; December, 2017, Walter Hogan, review of Autonomous, p. 58.
ONLINE
Adventures in YA Publishing, http://www.adventuresinyapublishing.com/ (April 5, 2018), author interview.
Andy Marino website, http://www.andy-marino.com (April 13, 2022).
The Nerd Daily, https://thenerddaily.com/ (September 216, 2021), Elise Dumpleton, author interview.
Swoony Boys, http://www.swoonyboyspodcast.com/ (April 12, 2018), author interview.
Tales of the Ravenous Reader, http://www.talesoftheravenousreader.com/ (April 11, 2018), author interview.
YA Books Central, http://www.yabookscentral.com/ (April 2, 2018), Beth Edwards, author interview.
Young Entertainment, https://youngentertainmentmag.com/ (April 4, 2018), author interview.*
Andy Marino was born in upstate New York, spent half his life in New York City, and now lives in the Hudson Valley. He is the author of seven novels for young readers, most recently THE PLOT TO KILL HITLER trilogy.
THE SEVEN VISITATIONS OF SYDNEY BURGESS is his first novel for adults.
Andy Marino
Andy Marino was born and raised in upstate New York. He spent his childhood orchestrating Lego pirate battles, drawing detailed maps of imaginary video games, and cheating death in Choose Your Own Adventure books. Profoundly influenced by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and the movie Bloodsport, he started writing his first novel at the age of eleven. Tragically, THE RUNES OF ILLIARM was never completed.
In sixth grade, he won a spelling bee and qualified for regionals one step away from the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC. Thoughts of ESPN cameras and fawning groupies clouded his mind, and he misspelled the word malediction.
During his teen years, Andy designed sets for school plays and became an expert stockpiler of unfinished art projects. After graduating from NYU with a bachelors degree in English, he played guitar in the bands Sayonara and SleepCrime, and got serious about writing fiction.
Genres: Mystery
New Books
December 2021
(kindle)
Escape from ChernobylSeptember 2022
(paperback)
Escape from East BerlinOctober 2022
(paperback)
It Rides a Pale Horse
Series
Plot to Kill Hitler
1. The Conspiracy (2020)
2. The Execution (2020)
3. The Escape (2020)
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Novels
Unison Spark (2011)
Uncrashable Dakota (2013)
The Door (2014)
Autonomous (2017)
The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess (2021)
Escape from Chernobyl (2021)
Escape from East Berlin (2022)
It Rides a Pale Horse (2022)
Novellas
The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter (2013)
QUOTE: “I started writing an epic fantasy novel when I was eleven. I loved the idea of building an endless world with MAPS GALORE. … [T]he book was called The Runes of Illiarm, and it remains mercifully unfinished.”
Home Writers Corner Author Interviews
Elise Dumpleton·Writers Corner·September 26, 2021·3 min read
Q&A: Andy Marino, Author of ‘The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess’
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From a thrilling new voice in horror, Andy Marino, comes a haunting tale of a woman whose life begins to unravel after a home invasion. She’s told she killed the intruder. But she can’t remember, and no one believes her…
We chat with author Andy Marino about his new novel The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, along with book recommendations, writing, and more!
Hi, Andy! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! Thanks for having me. I’m a native (upstate) New Yorker. I lived half my life in NYC and recently moved back up to the Hudson Valley, mainly for easy access to haunted places, apple orchards, and Stewart’s. I’m a fairly serious distance runner, daily frisbee-thrower for an Australian Cattle Dog, erstwhile musician, and reader of anything I can get my hands on.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
Elementary school. In an anecdote I added to my first-ever bio, which now lives forever in various online places, I started writing an epic fantasy novel when I was eleven. I loved the idea of building an endless world with MAPS GALORE. I imagined a comprehensive a map inside the front cover, an auxiliary map that zoomed in on the relevant areas, and a map of the main city that got super granular, with streets and prominent architecture all nicely labelled. Anyway, the book was called The Runes of Illiarm, and it remains mercifully unfinished.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember being obsessed with was a children’s book called Bizzy Bones and Uncle Ezra. It’s about a mouse who’s scared of the wind, so his incredibly kind and emotionally intelligent uncle (also a mouse) works on a secret project to help him overcome this fear. Highly recommended. The Lord of the Rings made me daydream about becoming an author (see epic fantasy/map lust story above). I would say I think about China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station once a day, or at least every time I see a moth.
Your new novel, The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, is out September 28th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Unsettling, propulsive, queasy, sharp, surprising.
What can readers expect?
What appears, on the surface, to be a thriller that hinges on a home invasion spirals into a nightmare odyssey of addiction, body horror, betrayal, and…love?
Where did the inspiration for The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess come from?
A desire to write honestly and compassionately about addiction. At the same time, I’ve always felt connected (on both a personal and creative level) to the existential horror of the cycle of addiction and relapse. So, when I started the first draft, I paired these themes with an almost uncomfortably close first-person POV and hung it all on the bones of a thriller. It immediately felt like the book I’ve always wanted to write, and the story evolved from there.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I’ve never really been a clockwork-type plotter, where everything falls into place thanks to a meticulous outline. I’ve always preferred to let the story unfold as the writing progresses. However, this novel adheres to some pretty twisty thriller mechanics, so I had to find new ways to hammer it into place. What helped was creating a rigorous framework, dividing the novel into seven visitation sections which are in turn divided into six chapters each.
See also
Reflecting On Self Publishing
Writers Corner
Almost A Year On: Reflections On Going Indie
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Turns out I really enjoy writing scenes set in bars.
What do you love about the horror genre?
It’s a breeding ground for infinite creative forms. Horror’s like a dark cloud that can float over any genre. 1970s Giallo films, classic monster movies, genre-bending monstrosities like House of Leaves—they’re all ostensibly horror, but seem like they come from entirely different universes. I love that horror can be as hyper-focused as an unsettling turn of phrase in a short story or as epic as a multi-part franchise.
What’s next for you?
Another horror novel coming out next year (also with Orbit/Redhook) that’s currently in the netherworld between first and second drafts. It’s about a sculptor forced to create an impossible masterpiece as the ransom for his kidnapped sister. I also have a novel for middle-grade readers coming out in December (and, I believe, a bit earlier if you’re a kid attending a Scholastic Book Fair) called Escape From Chernobyl.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
It’s a great time to be a horror fan! If you like weird horror—and short stories—Brian Evenson’s A Collapse of Horses delivers all kinds of disquieting happenings. For novels, I would definitely recommend Stephen Graham Jones’s Mongrels, John Langan’s The Fisherman, and Kathe Koja’s The Cipher.
Will you be picking up The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess? Tell us in the comments below!
Like this:
Andy Marino was born and raised in upstate New York. He spent his childhood orchestrating Lego pirate battles, drawing detailed maps of imaginary video games, and cheating death in Choose Your Own Adventure books. Profoundly influenced by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and the movie Bloodsport, he started writing his first novel at the age of eleven. Tragically, THE RUNES OF ILLIARM was never completed.
During his teen years, Andy designed sets for school plays and became an expert stockpiler of unfinished art projects. After graduating from NYU with a bachelor's degree in English, he dedicated himself to writing fiction. The insidious tractor beam of online social networks became the inspiration for UNISON SPARK, a novel about two teens with a secret past fighting the manipulative, all-consuming social network of the future.
Visit him at andy-marino.com.
QUOTE: “goes off the rails” “Content to shock with gore and vague psychological discomfort.”
Marino, Andy THE SEVEN VISITATIONS OF SYDNEY BURGESS Redhook/Orbit (Fiction None) $16.99 9, 28 ISBN: 978-0-316-62948-5
After surviving a home invasion, Sydney Burgess begins to realize that there is something, literally, inside her—something malevolent.
It’s the setup to many a psychological thriller: A woman finds a masked stranger in her house. She manages to cut herself loose and escape. That’s Sydney Burgess’ first memory, anyway, when she awakens in the hospital, but then she learns that the intruder is dead. Stabbed 28 times, actually. Sydney has no memory of this brutality, but as she returns home with her boyfriend and 11-year-old son, she notices other strange things: posters that seem to drip from the walls, a mysterious mechanical toy. As a former addict now nine years sober, Sydney feels like she’s living a double life at the best of times; as memories begin to resurface about the killing of the stranger, Sydney finds that there is something inside—a force, an entity, a power (it’s unclear)—driving her to investigate him. Discovering messages from the murdered man to her boyfriend, she realizes that they are connected through a pharmaceutical company. Then, through flashbacks, it's revealed that Sydney, just like the stranger, has been part of an experiment meant to temper the memories of addiction. Instead, things continue to go horribly wrong until there is nothing but carnage and tragedy and a deep, deep darkness. The “science” of this novel is shady and slight, which makes it hard to understand what's really going on. The title conjures up a tradition of visitations both divine and demonic, yet the answer is decidedly unmystical, even if it is a bit mystifying. For a while, it even seems like the darkness inhabiting Sydney may be a metaphor for the haunts of addiction. Then, once things are “explained,” the story really goes off the rails.
Content to shock with gore and vague psychological discomfort.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Marino, Andy: THE SEVEN VISITATIONS OF SYDNEY BURGESS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A669986561/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=82518de1. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.
QUOTE: “juggles devices and themes it doesn’t always manage to catch, but when it works, it’s absolutely devastating.”
The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess
Andy Marino. Redhook, $16.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-316-62948-5
Marino makes his adult debut (after the Plot to Kill Hitler YA series) with an ambitious if slightly overstuffed psychological horror novel about a woman's struggle to piece reality back together in the aftermath of an attack. Sydney Burgess, who has spent the past nine years maintaining sobriety and building a life with her son and boyfriend, is attacked and nearly murdered by a home intruder. When she recounts her narrow escape to the police, they give her a different timeline of events--one that ends with the intruder's body found in her home, profoundly mutilated. Sydney doesn't remember killing the man, much less desecrating his body in such a gruesome fashion. As a malevolent force grows within her and coaxes back old addictions, her life unravels and reality bends. Now Sydney must uncover the truth and confront the trauma of her past before it devours her. Marino does an impressive job writing tender and heartbreaking moments without sacrificing the brutal tone that drives the story. Though the time jumps and unreliable narration can feel erratic, the dreamy, nonlinear structure keeps things from becoming predictable. The novel juggles devices and themes it doesn't always manage to catch, but when it works, it's absolutely devastating. Agent: Cameron McClure. Donald Maass Literary. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 21, 24 May 2021, p. 57. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A663666058/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a388a154. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.
QUOTE: “[e]xciting, tragic, and gritty.”
Marino, Andy ESCAPE FROM CHERNOBYL Scholastic (Children's None) $7.99 12, 7 ISBN: 978-1-338-71845-4
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster changes the lives of three Soviet teenagers.
Yuri, who's 16, his 13-year-old cousin, Alina, and their friend Sofiya live comfortable lives in Pripyat, Ukraine--until the morning of April 26, 1986. Yuri is a loyal Soviet citizen and an intern at the power plant who dreams of joining the ranks of nuclear engineers. He is mopping the floors when he hears the explosions of the reactor accident. Sofiya's father, a nuclear engineer, warns her to stay inside and rushes to the plant to help. Meanwhile, Alina, who is portrayed with what seems to be undiagnosed OCD, is forced to leave her friend and cousin behind as her family is secretly hustled out of the city by a Communist Party official who knows the truth. All characters are presumably White. Though the author admittedly takes a few liberties and the story is fictionalized, the book is well researched and vividly portrays the Chernobyl disaster. The author includes details that paint a picture of the time and place, sprinkling italicized Russian terms and their explanations throughout. He walks a delicate line in dealing with these tragic and politically complex events, mostly with success. A few gory moments may disturb some readers, but excluding them would sanitize the human cost of the disaster. Political maneuvering and corruption are introduced but are insufficiently explored as a cause of the tragedy.
Exciting, tragic, and gritty. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-13)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Marino, Andy: ESCAPE FROM CHERNOBYL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A678748277/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=168c03e0. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.
QUOTE: “paints a vivid, if not always fully contextualized, picture of the catastrophe, its dangers, and a government willing to cover it all up.”
Andy Marino. Scholastic, $7.99 paper (176p) ISBN 978-1-338-71845-4
Alternating perspectives between three heroic young people living in Pripyat, Ukraine, Marino (the Plot to Kill Hitler series) puts a gripping fictional spin on the April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Sixteen-year-old Yuri Fomichev is a Soviet citizen interning at the plant while staying with his aunt and uncle. He's working the night shift when reactor four explodes, and he collaborates with others to salvage the situation and attempt a rescue. His cousin, 13-year-old Alina, who seems to have OCD, is whisked away from town with her brother; eventually, the two make their way back to look for their friends, fleeing at night back to Pripyar. And 15-year-old Sofiya Kozlov, Alina's butgoing best ftiend, is the daughter of one of the plant's nuclear engineers. When party officials downplay the explosion, Sofiya's father tells her the true magnitude of the danger, and she takes it upon herself ro warn her neighbors. Highlighting eerie moments (a column of light from the destroyed reactot lances the night sky), the denial of science by political appointees, and the swift and deadly effects of radiation poisoning, Marino paints a vivid, if not always fully contextualized, picture of the catastrophe, its dangers, and a government willing to cover ir all up. Ages 8-12. (Dec.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Escape from Chernobyl." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 44, 1 Nov. 2021, p. 86. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A681946743/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=112bd75b. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.