The experience unnerves him and inspires a transformation that leads T. He has always kept his distance from people - from his doting mother to his crass fraternity brothers - but remains unaware of his loneliness until one night, while driving to Las Vegas, he hits a coyote on the highway. The first in a series of books about the Sykes children, 'The Fires Beneath the Sea' is a rip-cracking middle-grade novel that will make perfect beach reading-for readers of any age!Īs a wealthy, young real-estate developer in Los Angeles, T. Packed with memorable characters and thrilling imagery, Lydia Millet weaves a page-turning adventure even as she brings the seaside world of Cape Cod to magical life. They're soon on the front lines of an ancient battle between good and evil, with the terrifying 'pouring man' close on their heels. With help from Cara's best friend Hayley, the three embark on a quest that will lead them from the Cape's hidden, ancient places to a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. But when a watery specter begins to haunt the family's Cape Cod home, Cara and her brothers realize that their scientist mother may not be who they thought she was-and that the world has much stranger, much older inhabitants than they had imagined. Her big brother Max is hiding behind his iPod, and her genius little brother Jackson is busy studying the creatures he collects from the beach. As the week nears its end, Nat rushes to protect herself and her younger brother from the corporates while also forging a path toward a future that offers the hope of redemption for humanity.Ĭara's mother has disappeared. Does she let her parents go gently into that good night, or does she turn against the system and try to break them out?īut the deck is stacked against Nat and Sam: in this oppressive environment, water and food are scarce, mass human migrations are constant, and new babies are illegal. While Nat attempts to come to terms with her impending parentless future, Sam begins to discover cracks in the corporates' agenda and eventually rebels against the company his parents have hired to handle their last days. The few Americans who still live well also live long-so long that older adults bow out not by natural means but by buying death contracts from the corporates who now run the disintegrating society by keeping the people happy through a constant diet of 'pharma.' Nat's family is spending their pharma-guided last week at a luxury resort complex called the Twilight Island Acropolis.ĭeeply conflicted about her parents' decision, Nat spends her time keeping a record of everything her family does in the company-supplied diary that came in the hotel's care package. In this richly imagined dystopic future brought by global warming, seventeen-year-old Nat and her hacker brother Sam have come by ship to the Big Island of Hawaii for their parents' Final Week.

Sweet Lamb of Heaven by Lydia Millet