Entangled

Starred review from September 16, 2013
In this accomplished debut, the scattered remains of the human race live as second-class citizens on alien worlds, plagued by the “spacesick” that comes from space travel. Seventeen-year-old Cade survives on the desert planet Andana, contending with the “Noise,” a constant jumble of sound in her head. Playing guitar for the spacesicks who love her music both makes her a living and keeps her sane. One night the Noise stops, and the hologram of a dead man appears to tell her why—Cade is the product of an experiment and has been entangled on a quantum level since babyhood with a boy named Xan. Xan is being held captive in Hades, an area of space infested with black holes, and to find him, Cade joins forces with a human smuggler, an alien captain, and his sentient ship. Capetta has a muscular writing style that embodies both Cade’s sensitivity to the world around her—essential for the artist she is—and the mental shields she creates to protect herself from the brutality of that world. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger.

December 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Cade lives in a world where humans are second-class citizens. Without a home planet, and unable to stop from falling into a detached sensory limbo called "spacesick," people are at the mercy of the galaxy's many other intelligent alien races. The teen protagonist is a tough loner, making a living on the fringes of a desert economy by playing club sets on her guitar. Her music is also the only thing that helps with the static in her head. She is unprepared for the day that the Noise finally quiets, and a mysterious holographic scientist reveals that she is an experiment, and has become entangled-or inexorably intertwined at the particle level-with a boy named Xan, who is in danger halfway across the known universe. Cade sets out on a quest to find him and makes a few friends along the way. Capetta's writing is jarringly uneven. It's only when the musician gets to know her fellow travelers that the novel becomes more engrossing and easier to follow. The multidimensional secondary characters are the book's strongest elements, while the premise that space is unkind to the human race is believable. Cade and the absent Xan are annoyingly Special with a capital S, and there are plot and setting holes aplenty. However, the intriguing twists will keep readers anxiously waiting for the sequel.-Katya Schapiro, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2013
The slow pace of a teen's attempt to locate the boy that scientists cognitively linked to her in infancy makes this science-fiction/adventure tale more plodding than thrilling. Cadence suffers from a debilitating mental static that abates only during her raucous electric-guitar solos. After a performance, a holographic scientist reveals that Cade's music has reopened her repressed connection to Xan. The connection alleviates the Noise, but it also places Xan in grave danger from the Unmakers. Joining forces with a band of space outlaws and using the Xan connection for guidance, Cade attempts to rescue Xan from Hades, an area of space littered with black holes. On the journey, Cade learns that she may hold the key that will cure humans from the mentally incapacitating spacesickness that has plagued them since Earth's destruction years earlier. Cade's evolution from a loner to a friend is predictable, though her nonverbal connection with Renna, the living spaceship, is somewhat more inventive. However, Cade rarely interacts with additional creatures that are dramatically nonhuman, a missed opportunity considering the futuristic space setting. The largely unremarkable prose becomes more spirited during the descriptions of Cade's musical talents. Though not especially thrilling or fresh, this far-future space adventure might appeal to readers looking more for an emotional journey than for a technical science-fiction yarn. (Science fiction. 14-18)

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November 15, 2013
Grades 8-10 Rock and roll crashes head-on into sci-fi in this outing from debut author Capetta. Cade is a human in a world of fantastic and freaky aliens, an antisocial girl who plays screaming electric guitar. Her adventure starts when she leaves behind the only life she has known to find her other half, a boy named Xan with whom she has been subatomically linked since birth. She traipses across the universe, exploring parts known and unknown, to find Xan and save him from the Unmakers, frightening villains who are out to kill them both. Along the way, she joins a ragtag space crew, whose members all have interesting backgrounds of their own. An outlaw vibe runs through Capetta's story, and her enticing world building is bolstered by convincing physics and hard science. Capetta's intensely descriptive phrases gleam with invented space-slang, especially when Cade is playing her guitar. Raucous, fun, and futuristic, this should appeal to fans of Antony John's Five Flavors of Dumb (2010) and R. J. Anderson's Ultraviolet (2011).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
In a far-future universe, loner musician Cade learns that she was subatomically "entangled" with someone in an experiment meant to adapt humans to space life. While searching for her imprisoned counterpart, she bonds with a host of intergalactic misfits. The world-building is creative and provocative, particularly the poignantly drawn human diaspora, but its internal logic falters under a twisty plot.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)