The Marbury Lens

Starred review from October 25, 2010
In this brutal but highly effective dark fantasy, Smith (In the Path of Falling Objects) tells the story of 16-year-old Jack, who gets drunk at a party and is kidnapped, tortured, and nearly raped by a serial killer. Jack escapes, but when he and his best friend Conner run into the kidnapper the next day, they abduct him in turn and accidentally kill him. Jack is highly traumatized by the experience and refuses to go to police, in part because he and Conner are leaving for England to check out a prep school. When Jack arrives in London, he is accosted by a mysterious stranger who seems to know him and hands him an odd pair of glasses. Looking through them, Jack is transported to the horrendous, postapocalyptic world of Marbury, where he is responsible for two younger boys, and Conner has been transformed into a murderous mutant, further destabilizing Jack's precarious sanity. This bloody and genuinely upsetting book packs an enormous emotional punch. Smith's characters are very well developed and the ruined alternate universe they travel through is both surreal and believable. Ages 14–up.

October 1, 2010

An engrossing horror/fantasy hybrid, this page-turner will be best appreciated by those with a taste for ambiguous endings. Sixteen-year-old Jack narrowly escapes a kidnapping by a menacing figure who drugs and nearly rapes him. Soon after, he and his best friend, Connor, embark on a planned trip to England, where a strange man gives Jack a set of purple eyeglasses that transport him to an alternate universe called Marbury whenever he wears them. In this post-apocalyptic world of ghosts and monsters, Jack and others struggle against the attacks of roving bands of creatures, once human, who have transformed into grotesque cannibals, and Jack's grip on reality becomes increasingly tenuous. Nightmarish imagery is chillingly effective, and the pacing superbly builds suspense. Connor's unrelenting teasing of Jack (including the oft-repeated suggestion that Jack's virginity means he must be gay) is authentic in its portrayal of the experience of close friendship between some teen boys. However, in the end there are many questions left unanswered—which may well prove frustrating to readers expecting an explanation of Jack's experiences. (Horror/fantasy. 16 & up)

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January 1, 2011

Gr 10 Up-What better way to celebrate an adventure to London than with a going-away party? Sounds good until Jack gets drunk and finds himself at the mercy of a crazed stranger who drugs him and holds him hostage. Readers will cheer when Jack frees himself from the certain death that seems to await him at his captor's home. But once he's out of harm's way, readers-like Jack-will begin to think being chained to the bed of a stranger was so much simpler than being on the run from a murder rap and hearing voices in his head. It all gets worse when he finds himself in London looking through some purple-tinted glasses into a parallel world of cannibalism and gore. As Jack grapples with maintaining his sanity, he also struggles with the fact that his best friend and traveling companion, Conner, is a murderous monster in the parallel world of Marbury-a murderous monster that he must face. This title will keep readers enthralled with its well-developed characters and unique plot. The four-letter words come fast and furiously, but they're no stronger than the violent and gruesome situations that befall Jack and Conner. Smith spares no graphic details to depict the horrific world of Marbury. The novel is not an easy read, but it is one that will keep teens hooked and the author leaves plenty of unresolved threads for a possible sequel.-Robbie L. Flowers, Detroit Public Library, MI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2010
Grades 10-1 *Starred Review* Smith follows his last excavation of darkness, In the Path of Falling Objects (2009), with a read that is as disorienting as it is daring. Jack is abducted, drugged, and tied by an ankle to the bed of a sexual predator named Freddie for days before escaping. He tells only his best friend, Connor, but shared secrets can come laced with poison. During a summer trip to London, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses that peer into a corpse-strewn wasteland called Marbury, where Jack is on the run from a horde of men turned beasts led by Connor. As Jack flips between worlds, the sickening draw of Marbury becomes like a drug, hollowing him out as an inner voice screams: Freddie Horvath did something to your brain and you better get help, Jack. A love interest tries to help Jack weather the onslaught of guilt and loathing, and yet another narrative layer comes from the story of a boy who was hung more than a century ago and whose ghost is now either haunting or helping Jack in both worlds. Mixing a trauma reckoning with dark, apocalyptic fantasy and notes of psychological horror, this commandeering novels multiplicity is elusively complex yet never complicated: although the many gut-quivering story elements are not clearly defined, they always speak to each other, and Smith wisely leaves much up to the reader. People will talk about this book and try to figure it out and maybe try to shake it off. But they wont be able to.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
While visiting London, Jack Whitmore discovers a pair of glasses that transport him to the apocalyptic world of Marbury. There he finds himself struggling to protect two younger boys. Meanwhile, his loose grip on reality threatens his relationships with his best friend and with a new love interest. Complex characters and visceral details make for a haunting and intriguing journey.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)