• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2020 July #1
  Walker and Alec Holland are identical twins, but they're different down to their roots: gregarious Walker is the life of the party, and though he tries to include his brother, Alec has never quite understood how to communicate with other people, preferring to experiment with plants. As the brothers spend their last summer before college in Virginia with their cousins, Alec goes deeper into his laboratory, and his plants begin to have strange effects on his body and his diabetes. At the same time, he meets a girl whose own experiments are deeply tied to the history of the town. Both Stiefvater's narrative, which flashes back and forth in time and is overlaid with Alec's philosophical recordings on plant life and death, and Beem's moody artwork, which uses split panels to great effect, play with ideas of duology and symbiosis. A moody green color palette, interrupted only by the otherworldly purple of Alec's plants or occasional dangerous burst of color, adds eerie atmosphere. It's a pensive, ambitious endeavor that will linger long with thoughtful teens.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fans have flocked to Stiefvater's high-concept YA series (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, The Raven Cycle). Her first graphic novel serves up everything they love. Grades 9-12. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

Maggie Stiefvater is the #1 New York times bestselling author of The Raven Cycle, the Shiver trilogy, and other novels for young and adult readers. She is also an artist, an auto enthusiast, and a bagpiper. She lives on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband, two children, and an assortment of fainting goats.

Morgan Beem is a freelance artist and member of the Jam House collective located in Denver, Colorado. Her work is predominantly in comics and illustration. She has worked on such properties as Adventure Time, Planet of the Apes, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is the co-creator of the comic The Family Trade, alongside writers Justin Jordan and Nikki Ryan, from Image Comics.