Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2025 *Starred Review* In the aftermath of terrible loss and its ensuing grief, it’s sometimes said that a person’s world turns upside down. Walz visualizes the metaphor to wily effect in a dynamic assault of intricately designed imagery, literally reversing gravity for his desperate characters, turning their suburban town into a thrilling, death-defying obstacle course they must navigate not just to survive but to evade the inexplicable monsters that pursue them both physically and psychically. Though the imagery makes for a striking strangeness, the narrative turns on far more than a visual device. Evan—guiltsick from his last exchange with his terminally ill best friend—and Emma—crushed by depression and loneliness—slowly discover that the monsters here haunt from within as much as from without and that this seemingly abandoned upside-down world itself is made of their deepest emotional vulnerabilities. It is in giving form to a struggle with mental and emotional health that Walz’s tale takes on deeper, more significant layers. By turning Evan's and Emma’s moment-to-moment battles to survive into simultaneous battles to face their own pain, Walz transcends the already top-notch adventure story and gives readers something more profound, more accessible, and more relevant. Like an updated, emotionally attuned Poseidon Adventure, this makes for a riveting, heartfelt ride. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.