Elsa negotiates her adolescence in a future where the three pillars of acclaim and achievement in high school are; science (mainly computer programming, not proper science), sports, and music (rock&roll stardom).
The Concept
Look at today's celebrities (ignoring movie stars for whatever reason), then do a linear extrapolation to arrive at what the future at point X might look like if we keep celebrating them most.
Have a smarter than your average (but otherwise normally abnormal) teenager discover her hormones, rebel against society and attempt the impossible.
Fascinating idea that perpetual motion theory is, isn't it? Incorporate it!
The Writing
It is well written and very funny in the early chapters. Nothing revolutionary. I remember being bothered by a thing or two, but I have already forgotten what. Bad critique-r.
The Story
Elsa is a sophomore in high school (sometime in the future), when it is imperative that you start putting a good cv together if you're going to get into a good college that is. Mr. Brown, her geometry teacher, offers her the perfect opportunity to pad up her resume by inviting her to join the science club. But Elsa is at the age of revolution. She decides to start her own club instead - The perpetual motion club.
Elsa has no boyfriend, partly because her hormones haven't kicked in yet, but getting knocked to the floor in the middle of an empty hallway by the tall new-basketball-star tall guy (who Mr. Brown regards disdainfully) changes the hormones part, but also partly because they are no boys in the picture except Jimmy who is proscribed because her mother likes him and because he is a twerp. Jason basketballstar Bridges she shall have whether he be accused of murder or not. It is the age of rebellion, isn't it?
The Perpetual Motion Club will not be recognized as an official club unless it has at least five members. Recruitment Drive. Members found. Now convince the panel. Mr. Brown the ogre.
No matter, achieve the impossible - build a perpetual motion machine. It is the age of discovery.
The Resolution
When you fall, pick yourself up and keep running in a direction as close to the one you were on as you can.
The Verdict
It starts out as a great book for science lovers, promising either a great invention or a recognition of failure as an inevitability in life, and ends up as an overcoming impossible odds in a dystopic world young adult book. Not for me.
