Threader (Rebekah Turner, Harlequin Teen)

Josie Ryder has been warned by the uncle who raised her to keep her telepathic and telekinetic talents a secret, especially from the powerful corporations who recruit talented people like her. Life for non-Citizens like Josie and her uncle is hard, though, and when an opportunity comes for Josie to join a prestigious corporate academy for students with talents, she barely hesitates. But things at Helios Academy are not as they seem: there is a dark secret connected to Josie’s parents and the mysterious project they were working on before they fled Helios so many years ago. Threader’s supernatural world-building is rather cool, the climax is exciting, and Josie is an active and very competent heroine. The book’s dystopian credibility is not strong—the corporate-driven social inequality of the beginning quickly drifts out of sight as the evil that Josie has to fight reveals itself to be supernatural and non-human. The story would have been more immersive if the writing gave a better sense of the characters inhabiting their own physical world. Characters rarely shifted position or interacted with their settings, which made the scenes thinner and more difficult to picture. Threader will appeal to middle- and upper-high school readers who enjoy supernatural powers and active, unapologetic heroines.

Jarrah Moore is a primary literacy editor at Cengage Learning Australia

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