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I'll admit, when I saw the blurb for this book at the library I immediately pictured an Elizabeth-Wein-writes-spec-fic awesome blend of historical fiction and fantasy. I love Cold War espionage stories! I love science fiction! The book wasn't exactly what I had hoped for, but it's better to judge it on its own terms than on how closely it adhered to some fictional book I made up in my head. So that being said, this is a YA thriller novel with some chills, some thrills, some romance that is there. One thing I did appreciate is that the villains, while still villainous, were a little more nuanced by the end of the story, instead of remaining Unfun and Evil because they ~just are~.
Overall, you will enjoy this novel depending on your ability to accept the idea that the US and the USSR, facing the threat of mutually assured destruction through nuclear war, decided to entrust the livelihood of their respective nations to a bunch of hormonal teenagers trained as spies. I genuinely don't mean this to mock the book-- I just mean that if you're willing to roll with that premise and want to know why anyone would do that, you'll enjoy SEKRET more, I think.
Note: one of the tricks the kids are taught to block against other mindreaders is repeating certain melodies or tunes in their heads. A very similar device is used in THE DEMOLISHED MAN by Alfred Bester, also set in the early 60s-- shoutout, perhaps?
Overall, you will enjoy this novel depending on your ability to accept the idea that the US and the USSR, facing the threat of mutually assured destruction through nuclear war, decided to entrust the livelihood of their respective nations to a bunch of hormonal teenagers trained as spies. I genuinely don't mean this to mock the book-- I just mean that if you're willing to roll with that premise and want to know why anyone would do that, you'll enjoy SEKRET more, I think.
Note: one of the tricks the kids are taught to block against other mindreaders is repeating certain melodies or tunes in their heads. A very similar device is used in THE DEMOLISHED MAN by Alfred Bester, also set in the early 60s-- shoutout, perhaps?