Title: Malice
Author: Pintip Dunn
Genre: YA Sci-fi, Thriller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Are you the same person now as you will be ten years from now?
One of the existential questions Pintip Dunn’s asks of her heroine in her newest page-turning YA Sci-fi, Thriller. Malice is Pintip Dunn doing what she does best, testing her readers to see possibilities that lay just outside what we accept as possible.
Who is Alice Sherman? She would say she’s a loyal sister, loyal friend, a person who sees the best in things, but admittedly, the worst baker. Alice is chugging along despite difficulties in a broken family, keeping a STEM preoccupied older brother anchored to the outside world. And this girl has her eyes on the prize; she isn’t going to let boys distract her from surviving highschool. She doesn’t date.
Pintip Dunn sets up this story with slow-rolling reveals which increase the pace and urgency of the evolving narrative. Couched inside the mystery is an ever-present reminder that there is no way we can know today what challenges to come will change us fundamentally. What motivates us right now can flip on a switch with a new catalyst.
The Forget Tomorrow series is an excellent introduction to Pintip Dunn because it lays the foundation for the science on which she bases this premise. It’s not necessary to read those books to understand Malice. But Forget Tomorrow series is set in a dystopian future where much of the theoretical science regarding metaphysical plane and time travel/precognition are applied. Malice is more or less the ‘prehistoric’ landscape of that dystopian future. The instigating event in Malice lies in two different timelines–present where the agent needs stopping, and the future when the catastrophic results require alternate past resolutions.
Even if you read Malice first, I recommend her Forget Tomorrow series.
Pintip Dunn sets Alice on a quest to solve in present time upcoming events. The vehicle she is using is a voice from the future that demands Alice does things that go against the personal identity of who she is now. Her first mission is to humiliate herself by telling the class heart-throb she loves him when she barely has a positive opinion about his arrogant and ego-driven self — the kick-off to her fighting her instincts, ideals, and morals.
The secondary characters are well developed and likable. Archie, Zeke, Lalana, Bandit, and Cristela push the story forward. Nothing said between the characters is unimportant, and nothing happens without reason in this narrative. Pintip Dunn dipped my heart in angst and sorrow often, and one conversation in this book made the organ ache.
‘”… I don’t deserve you–“
Malice by Pintip Dunn
“No. You don’t. Which is why you don’t get to keep me. We’re no longer friends, [name]. I don’t forgive you. I’m just not willing to screw up your future.”‘
And I removed the character name from that because it would be a spoiler. No one should spoil anything in this book for readers. Any spoiler would be out of context and misleading because you need everything in the story before it and after the spoiler to fully understand it.
I urge any sci-fi fans to read this. You don’t need to be a YA reader to enjoy this.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary advance copy of this book.
Title: Malice
Author: Pintip Dunn
Genre: YA, Sci-fi, Thriller
Release Date: February 04, 2020
Summary:
What I know: a boy at my school will one day wipe out two-thirds of the population with a virus.
What I don’t know: who he is.
In a race against the clock, I not only have to figure out his identity, but I’ll have to outwit a voice from the future telling me to kill him. Because I’m starting to realize no one is telling the truth. But how can I play chess with someone who already knows the outcome of my every move? Someone so filled with malice she’s lost all hope in humanity? Well, I’ll just have to find a way―because now she’s drawn a target on the only boy I’ve ever loved…
About Pintip Dunn:
Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B., and received her J.D. at Yale Law School.
Pintip’s novel FORGET TOMORROW won the 2016 RWA RITA® for Best First Book, and SEIZE TODAY won the 2018 RITA for Best Young Adult Romance. In addition, her books have been translated into four languages, and they have been nominated for the following awards: the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire; the Japanese Sakura Medal; the MASL Truman Award; the Tome Society It list; the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award; and a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of the Year. Her other novels include REMEMBER YESTERDAY, THE DARKEST LIE, GIRL ON THE VERGE, STAR-CROSSED, and MALICE.
Connect with Pintip Dunn:
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | BookBub | Amazon
