So, Variant comes out NEXT WEEK! Crazy. And today the good news has been flowing in. A starred review from VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates, magazine for YA librarians), and an awesome review from Booklist!

VOYA (Starred Review)

Benson Foster will try anything to escape the foster care system, but when he enrolls in Maxfield Academy, he finds that he is escaping one type of hell only to be trapped in another, truly deadly, one.  There are no adults at the academy; the students do everything from teaching to preparing meals and security.  There are four main rules: no sex, no violent fighting, no refusing punishments, and no trying to escape.  Students who break the rules are sent to detention, and they never come back.  Benson is trying to find a way to escape, and along the way he finds some devastating secrets: some of the students are not who they seem to be.

Variant is an exciting, edge-of-your-seat read that combines psychological themes from works like Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games and Ender’s Game in a truly unique way.  There are a couple of twists that are truly surprising and up the emotional ante of the story.  From the moment Benson enters the academy until the very end, readers are caught in a tight, tense thriller.  What is the academy and why are the students there?   Wells does a good job of both universebuilding and character development, as the rules unfold and character roles become clearer.  There is a slow unfolding of academy secrets that proves to be just the right pacing.  In the end, Benson may escape the walls of the school but he stumbles upon an even bigger mystery.  Variant should join the ranks of today’s must-read science fiction and fantasy series .  This is a highly recommended addition to any collection for teens.

—Karen Jensen.

Booklist

Lots of YA novels begin with a character arriving at new boarding school, but it is safe to say there has never been a boarding school like this. Perennial foster kid Benson arrives at Maxfield Academy armed with an unexpected scholarship and some cautious optimism, but within minutes of arriving he realizes something is terribly wrong. There are no adults. There are towering walls topped with barbed wire. Messages are sent by computer to instruct the teens in both academic pursuits and paintball war games. Most immediately worrisome is that the student body has split itself into three warring factions: the Society (tasked with keeping order), Havoc (food preparation as well as serious attitude), and the V’s (whose chief shared trait is a desire to escape). This is good old-fashioned paranoia taken to giddy extremes, especially when a totally implausible—but nonetheless enjoyably insane—twist upends the plot in the final act. Take Veronica Roth’s Divergent (2011), strip out the angst, add a Michael Grant–level storytelling pace, and you have this very satisfying series starter.

— Daniel Kraus

I haven’t been blogging much lately, so I thought I’d quickly recap a few things.

1. Panicking

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been recently diagnosed with a severe panic disorder. Let me tell you: it’s delightful.

Also: it’s been getting worse instead of better, which is the reason why I haven’t been blogging much. I’ve been taking medicine, and then taking new medicine, and not much is working at this point.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the topic, and here’s the best explanation I’ve been able to come up with: panic disorder is essentially a problem with the autonomic nervous system–the “fight or flight” mechanism in the brain. My fight-or-flight response has gone haywire to the point where it’s firing all day long, every day. In simpler terms: my brain is constantly sending me warning signals in the same way it would if I was being chased by a leopard. And my brain feels like it’s been chased by a leopard for the last nine months.

This is miserable. For example, just yesterday I finally ventured outside (something I’ve been doing less and less these days) and I went to the Home Depot to buy a couple things. And I got stuck inside the store. I had my three items, but was suddenly too panicked to go to the checkout line. And I was too panicked to put the items down and leave. I was stuck in the store, and had to go sit down in the back next to the insulation and take deep breaths until I could calm down. It’s not that I was afraid of something specific: I wasn’t afraid of the woman at the checkout counter, or the customers, or the parking lot, or anything rational. I was, instead, completely overwhelmed with, well, panic. I simply couldn’t go to the front of the store.

As I said, it’s a delight.

One thing I would like to say: my company has been more accommodating than I’ve had any reason to hope. They’ve allowed me to work from home, and they’ve currently granted me a leave of medical absence so I can try to get my head together. Also, I’d also like to say that my next door neighbor (who, fortuitously, is a psychiatrist) has been a great help during late night moments of trouble. And, of course, my wife is a saint who puts up with much more than she should ever have to. I’m surrounded by really tremendous, caring people, and I owe them a lot.

So, that’s where that all stands. If you’ve noticed I don’t blog as much, or tweet as much, or respond to emails as much, this is why. The medicine I’m on has to build up in the system before it starts working, and I’m counting down the days.

2. Variant

The other thing I’m counting down the days to: the release of Variant! It comes out one month from tomorrow, a fact that blows my mind. A few things of note:

• I’m working with an awesome indie bookstore for the launch party. It’s shaping up to be awesome. (If you’re wondering how I’ll have a launch party while still fighting panic disorder, the answer: Valium. My autographs might be slurred.) More details will be forthcoming.
• I just saw the cover design for the audio version, and it looks awesome. And, while I haven’t had the chance to listen to it, I know who the reader is and I think his voice and style will fit the book really well.
• I’m going to be blog touring for a month, starting September 26th. I’ll post more details as it gets closer.
• 20 ARCs of Variant are being given away on GoodReads! Go enter.
• Publishers Weekly gave Variant a starred review!
• On the other hand, a book blogger wrote “It was very original, the first time I’d ever heard it done, but perhaps no one had used the idea before because it’s not a good one.” That is, perhaps, my favorite negative review I’ve ever gotten.

3. Feedback

I’m busily working on the revisions for Feedback, the sequel to Variant. The process has been slow because my brain is clouded with stupid medicine and panic, but it’s coming along.

4. It’s football season.

If you and I are going to be friends, you need to know my opinions about football:

• College is better than pro. BY FAR. But all football is excellent.
• My favorite team is my grad-school alma mater, BYU.
• My next two favorites are Notre Dame and Wake Forest.
• My other alma mater (undergrad) is the University of Utah, and every year I really, honestly try to root for them, and every year I fail. (For those who don’t know: BYU and Utah have a terrible, unhealthy rivalry. I kinda hope that the rivalry fades a bit now that they are, for the first time in a hundred years, not in the same conference. But, it won’t fade. It will continue to be terrible.)
• I dislike the SEC.
• My favorite conference is the Pac-12, particularly the Oregon teams, USC, Stanford and UCLA.
• I’ve been trying to watch football all week (starting with Utah’s game on Thursday), but the whole panic thing might make this season unwatchable. I haven’t been able to sit through more than a few quarters of any game because of the tension.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve been reading a lot (mostly to relieve stress, and because I have terrible insomnia), so I hope to post some media consumption thoughts soon.