Eric Horton has been having visions - terrible dreams that wake him up at night - of explosions and fire and someone screaming.On the soccer field, he's been in the 'zone', saving shot after shot as one of the starting keepers for his high school varsity team with what feels like supernatural awareness of where the ball is going to go next. And the connection he feels with Renee, the hot new exchange student from France, seems almost like he's known her forever. But all these wild visions and synchronicities are nothing compared to the strange experiments Renee's dad is cooking up in the physics lab at the University. He's asked Eric to take part in these tests, and that makes Eric question whether what he's seeing and hearing is reality, or something far beyond it.Then when his best friend Will starts drinking way too much and Renee has eyes for other guys, Eric loses the edge he's always had in the goal, and confidence in himself. If he's going to pull it together, Eric must tap into a part of himself that he never knew existed, and that might just be the part that connects us all.
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 16, 2013 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781935462842
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781935462842
- File size: 2067 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 1, 2014
Gr 5-8-The lines between science and science fiction blur when Eric Horton gets the starting keeper position on his school's JV soccer team. Truthfully, he has been plagued by coincidence and random happenstance for much of his life. Part of the reason he's so good at soccer stems from an uncanny ability to predict where the ball is destined to go, so he is able to block the shot before the ball is actually kicked toward the goal. A visiting French professor begins to open his mind up to the possibility that everything is connected, including the rather trippy concept of The Universal Energy Field. Eric seems preternaturally drawn to the professor's daughter, Renee. But as things with his best friend begin to take a dark turn, and his relationship with Renee takes a downward slide, he finds that his "abilities" seem to fluctuate as his confidence wavers. This novel makes a valiant effort to present broadly abstract scientific concepts in a largely metaphysical way, making its protagonist open to the possibilities of such phenomena even though he is actively experiencing it. The most peculiar element of the story is its attempt to stay grounded in realism, focused primarily through Eric's friend Will, who turns to alcoholism after his father walks out on their family. Frustratingly, the book presents many esoteric concepts that are conveyed through dialogue. No one really talks like that, especially soccer players and their girlfriends. Still, some readers may find the philosophical musings interesting, and Eric's romance with Renee definitely makes the story more dramatic and complex.-Ryan P. Donovan, New York Public Library
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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