Stranger Inside (Paperback)

The story is scary and compelling enough just in outline -- a disease that causes adolescent boys to suddenly burst into flame. But what Krane does with it is pure genius -- he gets into the mind of one of the boys, a heart-breakingly vulnerable and artistic orphan (guess why he's an orphan) and makes us live the tragic career of a talented man-child doomed to function as tool of an intelligence so alien that its cruelty and iron obdurancy make you want to shout out in defense of the protagonist.

If that isn't enough, the other point of view character is a man seeking to solve the riddle of these boys who spontaneously combust. And his story also involves betrayal, anguish, and ultimately compassion for the victims.

STRANGER INSIDE echoes CARRIE, yes, but it comes to the table with a deeper appreciation of what it is to be an alienated teen -- in this case a teen with a secret more devastating than an unsympathetic and anhedonic mother -- than we ever could have had when we read that earlier masterpiece. Krane, and we, have lived through the tragedy of Columbine, and if we're attuned to the complex message of that catastrophe, this book is going to make us think more deeply than ever before about the nature of innocence and victimization.

Krane gets to the heart of what it is to be young and a victim. He treats issues of privacy and first amendment rights, as well as the ineffective and cruel way adolescents are treated in our society when they fall afoul of the law, whether as a result of their own ill deeds or innocently.

You'll read this book fast -- the pages turn quickly. But you'll remember its protagonists and its message long after you've put it down.

Krane is going to be DAW's superstar of the first decade of this century -- discover him early.

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Jimmy Somerset is a seventeen-year-old who has been in and out of foster homes all his life. His latest home is good for him and he has a job he loves. However, high school bullies won't leave him alone. One day they go too far and Jimmy causes permanent physical damage on his tormentor. He is given the option of going into the government-sponsored program TRACE or Juvenile hall. He picks TRACE not knowing he will be placed in a unit mentored by Code Blue who thinks he is the key to getting the answers to dead teens.

This is one novel where the government does not behave like an impersonal robot but as a group of caring individuals that deal with a complex problem of epic and international proportions. The children in TRACE are cared for and getting the treatment they need even if they don't know what is really going on around them. STRANGER INSIDE is a science fiction novel that keeps readers guessing until the very last paragraph.

Harriet Klausner

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