Conveniently armed with a box containing the secrets they'll need, they go ashore to find out why their breathing necklaces, without which the Kampii cannot exist underwater, are failing. Aluna, a 13-year-old who has yet to grow her mermaid tail, and her best guy pal, Hoku, swim off to save the Kampii.

Readers might be able to root for the likable yet naive characters if they weren't so busy deflecting the skepticism surrounding all the happy resolutions to the protagonists' problems.

There are a multitude of plot contrivances and too many well-intended life lessons. Gr 5-8- Above World is a fish-out-of-water fantasy that could have been great, but ultimately barely stays afloat. Agent: Joe Monti, Barry Goldblatt Literary. An open-ended conclusion leaves the door to Reese’s futuristic world wide open for future adventures. Action-seeking readers should enjoy the many revelations, twists, and hand-to-claw battle sequences, and fierce, take-charge Aluna is the kind of heroine who is easy to get behind. Aluna and Hoku are determined and resourceful protagonists, and the novel’s hybrid species are fun and cleverly imagined (the birdlike Avians factor heavily into this installment) the Upgraders, who murder other post-humans for their body parts, are sadistic, one-dimensional monsters that owe a thing or two to the Borg of Star Trek. Defying the Elders and accompanied by her loyal sidekick, technophilic Hoku, Aluna sets out to find HydroTek, the long-lost source of her people’s technology. Aluna, a hotheaded 13-year-old Kampii who is just about to trade her legs for a tail in a coming-of-age ceremony, has discovered that the poorly understood mechanisms that support her isolated, underwater community are beginning to break down. JanuFirst-time author Reese takes mermaids (and other mythological hybrid creatures) into postapocalyptic territory in a straightforward but exciting adventure.

Above World by Jenn Reese