This is a very weird book, where hard science and nature magic coexist in our world. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, which follows Laurence (bullied computer nerd science boy) and Patricia (bullied nature-loving witch girl) through high school and their abusive families. Seriously, why were both their families so awful? Roberta, Patricia's abusive and sadistic sister, reminded me of the seriously broken Peter Wiggin from "Ender's Game", yet this was never really dealt with in the slightest.

The second half of the book kind of fell apart, however. Both the science people and the magic people appear to be working on apocalyptic solutions to the approaching apocalypse caused by overpopulation, global warming, etc etc (because that totally makes sense?) while completely ignoring the possibility of trying to fix any part of what's going wrong. Patricia's fellow witches keep talking to her about avoiding "aggrandizement", which never really made sense and also never came to anything. There's a random assassin who shows up to make high school life difficult but then basically disappears and comes to nothing in the end. Inexplicable behaviour from various characters including Laurence and Patricia themselves (why, after encouraging her and wanting to see magic, would Laurence act the way he does?) And of course a requisite romance thread when Patricia and Laurence meet again in adult life, along with way too much irrelevant detail about what Laurence rather inexplicably does to his pubic hair (why??) The plot problems are of course solved in one easy scene when a main character is suddenly able to wield abilities they've never shown before, deus ex machina, and happily ever after, etc.

I did like the first half and found the writing easy to read and approachable, if a little inconsistent in style sometimes. Definitely felt as if the ending was more than a bit of a mess though and the whole thing lacked internal consistency.