Name: The Always War
ISBN: 9780689873805

Margaret Peterson Haddix

In a war-torn future United States, fifteen-year-old Tessa, her childhood friend Gideon, now a traumatized military hero, and Dek, a streetwise orphan, enter enemy territory and discover the shocking truth about a war that began more than seventy-five years earlier.

The Always War

Jeni Enjaian

As much as I thought that Shusterman missed the mark on his book that came out this year, Haddix missed the mark even more. This book and plot had so many holes and unreasonable asks for suspension of disbelief. First, Haddix did a poor job explaining the incident that catapulted KT into this alternate universe in the first place. Even when she explained everything at the end, I came away unsatisfied. Second, the ridiculous responses and reactions from the adult in the alternate universe bothered me so much. All of them went straight for completely angry so quickly, way too quickly for a normal person. I also did not like the way they spoke to KT either, even if she was being bratty at the time they spoke to her. Third, the resolution felt entirely too cheap and unsatisfactory.

Nope