Nate only wanted to go back to the family cabin to sort out his life. He didn’t expect to meet two squatters, a military man and a strange young girl, hiding out in his cabin. He didn’t expect the gun pressed to his head. He certainly didn’t expect to find himself on the run from government agencies intent on keeping their secrets.

This is my first experience with Klune. Years ago, when The House on the Cerulean Sea published, it quickly gained popularity. I tried it out and it felt too young for my liking. After a few pages, I returned it to the library. Since then, I’ve seen a bajillion books come out from the author. The first one that really caught my attention was The Secret Lives of Puppets, though I never got around to reading it. The second was more recent, called We Burned So Bright. But then a week ago, I desperately needed an audiobook to listen to and this one was available from Libby. I don’t know that it was the best Klune to start with, but this is how I began.

My reaction to the book is mixed. On the good side: The story was intriguing. The girl (Art) was obviously strange from the beginning, though I couldn’t tell if she was an artificial construct, some kind of cyborg, an alien, a transplanted soul, a clone, etc – she was just obviously Not Right. The truth is revealed slowly as Nate, Alex, and Art go on the run from secret agents. It was intriguing. The 90s setting was quite nostalgic, and I liked that part a lot.

Toward the 75% mark, though, the book started feeling a bit heavy-handed. A lot of moral lessons were taught outright. The romance that developed between Alex and Nate, which I enjoyed and thought was well done, veered sideways into erotica for one scene. Normally, I’m fine with that, but this one was, um, very spit-heavy, and no thank you. It also seemed a bit out of place in a book that gave no hint of adult content through all the rest before and after. The ending wrapped up very quickly and ambiguously in a way that left me unsettled. Not unsettled by the story, but unsettled like I’m not sure I really caught what the intention of the book was meant to be. That might simply be because I was literally moving house while I listened to it, but others I know have said they also found it to be a strange/unsettling ending.

I’m sure I’ll read more Klune. I’m still interested in those two books mentioned above. After that, I’ll be able to better decide if I should dive into others that have not really caught my attention in the past. It was a strange beginning, but not off-putting.

Performance: This audiobook was read by Kirt Graves. I was a little thrown by the accents he chose for the characters, which were very southeastern-US when the bulk of the story took place in the Oregon/Washington-to-North Dakota corridor. I was also not a fan of his voice for Art (but I rarely like when people make “children’s” voices in audiobooks). Also: “vague” does not rhyme with “bag.” It startled me every time he said it. Not my favorite performance, but not the worst either.