From the cover:
"A YA thriller described as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets John le Carré, about a teen math prodigy with an extreme anxiety disorder who finds himself caught in a web of lies and conspiracies after an assassination attempt on his mother.
Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a math genius who suffers from an extreme anxiety disorder, one that subjects him to intense panic attacks. He only manages to get through his daily life with the constant help of his scientist mom and his beloved twin sister, Bel. But when their mother is nearly assassinated in front of their eyes--during a major awards ceremony in her honor--Pete finds himself separated from Bel, alone, and on the run.
Dragged into a strange world where state and family secrets intertwine, Pete has to use his extraordinary analytical skills to find his missing sister, uncover the mystery of his mother's life's work, and track down the people who attacked her--all the while fighting to keep a grip on the fear response that threatens to overwhelm him. Weaving back and forth between his past and present, the novel is an extraodinary testimonial from a protagonist who is brilliant, broken, and trying to be brave."
I wanted to love this, but it was a struggle. The first chapter was jarring, it was frustrating to follow, and from the beginning I couldn't get into it. Nearly halfway through the book, there didn't seem to be any driving force behind the story beyond the hazy "my mom is a spy" twist and "I have severe anxiety/paranoid delusions/who knows wtf else." It felt like a concept for a story being forced into becoming an entire plot. There wasn't any real character development, no opportunity to connect to anyone in the story, and the "assassination attempt" and ensuing drama felt forced.
I know it's a psychological thriller, and it may have been by design that it was never clear what was going on--after all, that's how the main character feels a lot of the time, so why not put your readers in his shoes. I can appreciate the attempt, but I'm not a fan of spending an entire book in the dark like that. Then there was the inclusion of his father as a looming threat, even after it became clear the dad had nothing to do with what was happening. At first I wondered whether he might crop up, but it seemed in the end to be nothing more than a way to incorporate punishing domestic violence perpetrators into the story, I guess so Bel could be a monster but not that much of a monster. Again, it felt forced. Ultimately, while I find the concept for this story intriguing, the execution was a bit too hazy for my tastes.
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