The Conformity

February 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-The conclusion to the thrilling "Twelve-Fingered Boy" trilogy (Carolrhoda Lab) has it all: explosions, romance, mental telepathy, hellish creatures comprised of living humans, and a crazy religious cult. This final installment opens immediately after its predecessor ends with little summation of what has lead up to the opening scene. The nation is being attacked by horrifying creatures made up of swarms of terrified humans, controlled by the Conformity: an evil, bodiless entity that feeds on the psychic energy of those with special abilities. Shreve and a small band of "extranaturals" are faced with the task of saving humanity. Like the first two books, there is plenty of action, mature language, and a darkness that pervades the work. The narration is told from several perspectives, which enhances the storytelling and help develop the lead characters (particularly giving insight as to why the young adults have become so jaded). This conclusion wraps up quickly and is not as concrete as the previous entries. For the story to work, readers must be willing to embrace the notion of Shreve using his astral body to perform supernatural feats. VERDICT Fans of the series will be satisfied.-Sherry J. Mills, Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis, MO

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015
Telekinesis, flying teens, reinhabited bodies, giants and more: The Society of Extranaturals returns for the conclusion to the Twelve-Fingered Boy trilogy. Right from the get-go readers are plunged almost too quickly into the action of Jacobs' finale. Awakened by a din of screams and crashing trees outside their bunker, Shreve and Jack, heroes of the previous two installments, rally their troops to battle the Conformity, a conglomeration of thousands of innocent human victims fused together into a brown, jellylike bipedal mass by "some massive and unknown telekinetic power." The Conformity stands stories tall, wreaks havoc wherever it walks and sucks up other humans into its body as it goes. Not only is the action hard to follow from the first page, but it's interspersed with confusing, often unattributed dialogue that is either spoken or telepathically sent, the latter set apart in bolded italics rather than with quotation marks. Just when readers have almost wrapped their heads around the flying teen heroes, strange communication signals and extensive back story and have settled into this otherwise fairly fast-paced third, Jacobs confoundingly switches gears midway through and adds multiple narrators. All this said, the novel isn't without genuine action and exciting thrills, it's just hard to penetrate through the ether to get to the good stuff. A finale that requires homework of its readers. (Supernatural thriller. 13-15)

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March 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 The Twelve-Fingered Boy trilogy has been uncommon since the first page, and Jacobs sends it off in kindred style. The action is immediate: Shreve and his gang of extranaturals at last attack the humanity-devouring Conformity. It materializes as soldiers, giant human-shaped golems built from thousands of tormented people and reminiscent of Clive Barker's landmark story, In the Hills, the Cities. As baddies go, they're pretty awesome to behold, and soon our troop retreats with a comatose Shreve. With our protagonist gone for much of the book, Jacobs splinters the narrative among the side charactersa fortuitous circumstance, as the rock-'em-sock-'em stuff, filled with shouting sidekicks, is a bit hard to follow. The resulting plot treads water somewhat, but as a multiple-character study, it's a fine read, with Jacobs perpetuating his fascinating proclivity toward tumbling, sensory, sometimes puzzling, but always resonant prose: I became the green fuse that drives the flower. I became electricity itself. The finale, as you'd hope, is in the spirit of the entire series: obstinate, brash, and even transcendent.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2015
Shreve, Jack, and their fellow extranaturals must use their magic to defeat the Conformity, the malevolent entity causing psychic turmoil, or humankind will forever be subject to its incomprehensible powers. The fully developed teen characters' battle to save the world is imaginative and viscerally descriptive. Fans of the trilogy should be satisfied with this heartrending and dramatic conclusion.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)