Verify

June 3, 2019
In this dystopian thriller set in America nearly a century from now, a young woman discovers lies undermining her community when she seeks to complete her late mother’s unfinished paintings. Meri Beckley, 16, just wants to become a government-approved artist and to work in Chicago’s City Pride Department. But after a stranger entrusts her with a piece of paper, use of which has become heavily discouraged for environmental reasons, with the word “verify” (a term that is not recognized by society) on it, Meri begins a search for meaning that leads to an underground society of scholars dedicated to remembering the time before the U.S. government banned books, rewrote history, and erased subversive words, such as “diversity,” “vulnerable,” and “entitlement.” But while the Stewards would rather hide away and avoid detection, Meri is determined to fight back and reveal the truth to the world at any cost. Charbonneau (the Testing trilogy) delivers a tense duology opener focusing on the dangers of censorship and the power of information. Despite a strong, entertaining story line and engaging characters, though, this hits multiple well-worn beats made familiar by its genre predecessors. Ages 13–up. Agent: Stacia Decker, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

July 15, 2019
An alluring young man gives teenage Meri a slip of paper that changes everything she knows about the world and sets her on a quest for the truth. The paper says only "VERIFY," a word Meri has never seen before. As it turns out, there is a lot about the world that Meri does not know. Following clues left by her late mother, Meri begins to learn the truth behind the clean, eco-friendly, safe society in which they live. Charbonneau (Eden Conquered, 2018, etc.) imagines an America where years of banned word lists, travel restrictions, and censorship through digitization have made truth meaningless. The fast-paced story hits all the expected beats as the author sets up Meri's dystopian world, one that is interesting but will feel familiar to readers experienced with the genre. Meri is hurriedly inducted into a secret resistance group, all while dealing with friendship, romance, her father's alcoholism, and pursuit by the secret police. A strong thread of anxiety about technological advancement runs through the book, from the untrustworthiness of e-books to the dangers of recycling paper books. Many threads are left dangling in obvious preparation for a series, but the abrupt ending will leave dystopia-loving young adult readers eager to find out what happens next. Meri is white, and two important secondary characters have brown skin. Hard to put down but easy to forget. (Dystopian. 13-18)

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August 1, 2019

Gr 7 Up-In the near future, trust in the media is implicit. Before she died, Merriel "Meri" Beckley's mother was her hero and role model, an artist for the City Pride Department whose goal was to beautify Chicago and inspire the community. But everything Meri knows about her world is thrown into doubt when she sees a man being arrested for possessing paper, something that authorities have declared obsolete but not actually illegal. In the wake of this bombshell, Meri embarks on a path to discover the truth about the paper and her mother's sudden death. Meri's suspicions that all is not right are confirmed when she gets a piece of paper herself with an unfamiliar word on it: verify. When she looks up the strange word, an error code appears, along with the police. Meri is a complex protagonist, struggling with both the death of her mother and her father's drinking to cope with the loss. The characters Meri meets along the way encourage her to grow, while her best friend Rose is her only steady support system and sounding board. VERDICT The Matrix meets 1984 in this page-turner about a teen faced with the choice to opt out or delve even deeper.-Rebecca Greer, Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative, FL

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
Grades 8-12 Following in the footsteps of Vonnegut and Orwell (sometimes very closely), Charbonneau (Time Bomb, 2018) explores a future America in which paper is illegal, crime is nearly eradicated, and the government-run news is never questioned. Meri Beckley is grateful for peace on the streets of Chicago, but that doesn't change the facts that her mother went missing (supposedly killed in a car crash) and her father has started drinking excessively. As Meri tries to untangle the work her mother was doing before she died, she discovers there is more going on in?and below?the city than meets the eye. As tensions rise and Meri discovers strength she never thought herself capable of, she finds herself at the center of a war between the government and those trying to reveal the truth buried beneath the government's carefully curated news cycles. This (book one in a series) is a thriller about the power of words for teens living in a society full of fake news and attempts to mislead the public at large.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The topical relevance of this series starter will likely spawn another best-seller for Charbonneau.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)