Adaptation--"I hardly think a few birds are going to bring about the end of the world"

Title: Adaptation

Author: Malinda Lo (I am doing an in-depth author study on Malinda Lo as a final paper for a class, and this is the third of five fiction novels I am reviewing)


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): On June 19, thousands of birds go berserk, flying off course and smashing themselves into airplanes, causing over a dozen planes to crash.  Thousands of people die and most of the United States fears that this is terrorism-related.  David and Reese are driving home from Arizona that night when a bird causes their car to crash.  After a stay in a mysterious hospital, David and Reese heal from their injuries and acquire mysterious new abilities.


 What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I have a beef with the tagline:

In case you can't read it, it says "The others are already here." 

Way to put a spoiler in the tagline, publisher. If it hadn't been for that, I would have thought this book was just a government conspiracy story and the alien reveal would have surprised me, but the reveal wasn't a surprise since I was spoiled.  

The beginning is harrowing and slightly confusing, due to the crashes, panic, and the birds!  Reese, healed from some pretty severe injuries, wakes up twenty-seven days after she and David get in a car crash. The book that I initially thought would be about alien birds turned into an X-Files style government-hiding-knowledge-of-aliens book.  Who should Reese and David trust--the lyin' aliens or the lyin' gub'ment?

Spoilers aside, I enjoyed the story and characters. Reese's friend Julian runs a blog about government conspiracies. Reese, who had always considered herself straight, meets and falls in love with Amber, acknowledging that she is attracted to both boys and girls. 

David, Reese's Chinese-American debate partner on whom Reese has a crush, does not become a fully-developed character until the end of the book, when he becomes the third side of a love triangle.  But one of them is not who they seem to be--and it was really easy to predict, honestly.  Stupid tagline.

Adaptation ends with a cliff-hanger, so if that annoys you, make sure you have Inheritance nearby so you can read how the press conference goes.


This book is on the 2013 Rainbow Book List.


My final takeaway: I enjoyed it enough to want to read Inheritance right away, but man I was spoiled by the stupid tagline. I enjoyed all of the characters, and I wish the birds had really been evil, somehow.


 My favorite quotes: 

• "But the more she tried to focus in on that thing that had happened between those events, the more it slid away from her, slippery as an eel" (first edition, pg. 85).
    
• "She was falling for this girl, this beautiful, beautiful girl, and she wanted to fall. She wanted to leap right now, arms spread wide, gravity pulling her down, the wind tearing at her hair.  She didn't care if she crashed, as long as Amber crashed with her" (pg. 188).
    
• "People are always going to think something about you that isn't real.  It doesn't matter what they think. Nobody ever knows what to think of me. I'm not black enough for some folks, and I'm not Jewish enough for others. I mean, my favorite food is bacon. And then you throw in the gay thing, and it messes it up even more" (pg. 193).
    
• "What?  I grew up in San Francisco.  You don't think I've ever kissed a girl?" (pg. 208).

 Other reviews: Tor.com and Rhapsody in Books.


 This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.