The Confession of Hemingway Jones

Hannon explores themes of guilt and grief against the backdrop of an eerie cryogenic laboratory in this Frankenstein-leaning sci-fi adventure. Seventeen-year-old Hemingway Jones has once again been caught skipping his prestigious internship at Lifebank, a cryogenics lab in North Carolina for which he carts corpses to eccentric scientists performing intricate experiments. But the internship doesn’t matter to Hem, who’s only doing it because his father is forcing him to. When he gets into a car accident while driving stoned, resulting in his father’s death, Hem is desperate to save him. He smuggles his father’s body into Lifebank and begins replicating the scientists’ work to bring him back to life. Eventually, he’s able to revive his father—though the being before him has ashen gray skin, can’t survive in temperatures above 55 °F, must subsist on hydrogen sulfide, and has somehow developed supernatural powers, including telekinesis. Hem’s acerbic personality and tendency to mock the intersectionally diverse supporting cast bogs down a strong start. Intriguing conversations surrounding morality and ethics, offered alongside viscerally described scenes of gory scientific experimentation, add depth to this uneven debut. Ages 13–up. (Sept.)