Review: Spontaneous

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Spontaneous, at its core, is a book about teenagers spontaneously combusting.

No one quite knows why, and there doesn't appear to be a pattern except that it's happening in a small town. It gets media interest, government interest, scientific interest, but the kids just have to deal with the fact that they're all apparently blowing up in a mess of blood and guts at random times. This is a book about dealing with that reality.

On one hand, there is a bit of "coping with trauma" here that's pretty good, but, on a whole, this book is a little ridiculous and doesn't seem to miss that, but it's also where the charm of the whole story comes into play. While imperfect, there's definitely the survival instincts that kick in, and once they move along a bit toward the conclusion, it does become fairly charming.

Overall, a fun read and closer to a 3.5. Definitely nothing I can recall like it.

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