The Key to Fear

September 14, 2020
In this propulsive series starter, Cast (The Dysasters) imagines a corporation-controlled post-pandemic world in which human touch is highly regulated (“No touching today for a healthy tomorrow”). Fifty years after the deadly virus Cerberus claimed untold billions, 17-year-old Elodie Benavidez excels at her Key Corp-assigned nursing career and has been matched with—and affianced to—Rhett Owens, a young man with solid career prospects. But something is missing for Elodie, who prefers bathing in water instead of light, as is common, and spends her free time reading banned novels. When a young patient goes missing from her ward and she meets 17-year-old Aiden, a seemingly directionless young man with dirty boots that stand out in her strictly sanitized milieu, Elodie realizes that things are not as perfect as the Key Corp claims; she must decide whether the bubble in which she lives is enough. Though Cast aptly portrays a sense of unease among people living heavily governed lives, broad-strokes worldbuilding fails to result in deeply developed characters or a robust world. Ages 12–up. Agent: Steven Salpeter, Curtis Brown.

Starred review from October 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* After the deadly Cerberus virus, which spreads via touch, causes a pandemic that wipes out most of the human race, the Key Corporation assumes control of society in the name of safety and order. In this world where gestation bots nurture human young, citizens are referred to by numbers, and physical affection is prohibited, Elodie is a rising MediCenter nurse and a hopeless romantic who trusts the system and the path it has chosen for her. Meanwhile, Aiden is a well-connected rebel with many causes who must avoid being hunted down after unearthing certain secrets that have caused him to question their existence in the locked-down Zone 7. With high energy, expertly crafted prose, and dialogue bringing a bleak reality to life, Cast has shaped an unforgettable dystopia worthy of Orwell or Huxley, with eerie relevance to contemporary society, as The Key maintains control over every facet of residents' lives. This thrilling and dangerous dystopic journey reminds readers that the corpses were?and remain?humans, that love is integral to our fabric as sentient beings, and that there is a promise of hope out there. And, of course, the Key's haunting mantra, No touching today for a healthy tomorrow, has never been more relevant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

August 15, 2020
"No touching today for a healthy tomorrow." After a deadly pandemic wiped out most of the world's population 50 years ago, the Key Corp has emerged as humanity's savior by creating shielding technology, imposing laws against touching, and controlling every aspect of life, from matching teens with significant others to assigning their careers paths from a very young age. Elodie is a nurse matched to a fiance she is not too sure about, but since questioning the Key is unheard of, she complies. Aiden is a rebel with a secret, changing career paths frequently until he is threatened with Rehabilitation and ends up working at the morgue. When Elodie and Aiden meet, everything changes, and Elodie starts to question everything she has been told. First in a new series, the novel fails to impart the fear necessary for its worldbuilding to work, between its risible villains, a too-easy-to-infiltrate evil corporation, and a sketchily developed connection between the main characters. The rules imposed by the Key Corp crumble under scrutiny, and the public's overall conformity and compliance with them seem utterly implausible: Touching and sex are illegal and harshly punished, yet teenagers are still matched, married off, and expected to live together and start families (though babies are grown in laboratories). Elodie and Aiden are both brown-skinned. Despite its topical pandemic plot, the novel brings nothing new to the genre. (Science fiction. 14-18)

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