Pentapod reviewed Feeder by Patrick Weekes
Review of 'Feeder' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Really enjoyed this YA book - a quick read for adults but a fun one! While I guess you'd call it fantasy, it's definitely not a typical fantasy setting (nor in the slightest like the author's other fantasy books). Set in a slightly future world where the water level has inexplicably risen but where almost everyone is unable to really notice or think about this fact, it follows a teen called Lori who is now the sole guardian and supporter of her younger brother Ben. Lori makes a living in an unusual way - she works with an interdimensional being known only as "Handler", hunting down "Feeders", powerful alien beings who for some reason seem to want to influence Earth and the people on it for their various usually nefarious purposes.
When Lori goes to the Lake Foundation for what she thinks is a standard alien-eliminating job, she discovers a …
Really enjoyed this YA book - a quick read for adults but a fun one! While I guess you'd call it fantasy, it's definitely not a typical fantasy setting (nor in the slightest like the author's other fantasy books). Set in a slightly future world where the water level has inexplicably risen but where almost everyone is unable to really notice or think about this fact, it follows a teen called Lori who is now the sole guardian and supporter of her younger brother Ben. Lori makes a living in an unusual way - she works with an interdimensional being known only as "Handler", hunting down "Feeders", powerful alien beings who for some reason seem to want to influence Earth and the people on it for their various usually nefarious purposes.
When Lori goes to the Lake Foundation for what she thinks is a standard alien-eliminating job, she discovers a group of teenagers being held captive. Like her, they can actually think about the water levels rising and have unusual abilities --and Lori's interference in releasing them angers the Lake Foundation. Now she and her new friends have just a few days to either eliminate the Lake Foundation before the Bad Guys track them down and destroy all their families and loved ones, including Lori's brother Ben. But the more she gets to know the other kids, the more Lori begins to realize their abilities are not the same as hers at all.
Although the story centers around Lori, the other teens and their abilities get a fair amount of "screen time" also and they're a great, diverse cast of misfits incorporating very positive representations of disabled, gay, and racial minority characters as they handle circumstances that rapidly escalate beyond their control. Overall it's a very readable book with an extremely creative setting and likeable (albeit occasionally disturbingly bubbly) characters.
