SOMEONE'S BEEN MESSING WITH REALITY

A seemingly ordinary 14-year-old discovers that he has superpowers after his parents disappear and his quiet Irish village is attacked by alien eco-activists.

Imbued with a heavy tone of anxiety, Martin’s narrative never does get off the ground—though he does, with a chance video of his dad falling off a roof and drifting down like Mary Poppins leading his friend Tina to a correct conclusion: “You’re an alien, dude.” He’s not the only one: Subsequent events reveal that his parents are interstellar cops who have been kidnapped as part of a secret scheme to kill off Earth’s entire polluting, biosphere-destroying human population with vicious attack insects. What can Martin, the indomitable if impulsive Tina, and their friend Enda, who’s endured brain damage following an accident, do to counter the threat? Hard as Hearne tries to lighten the load with wild car chases, explosions, and daring rescues, the plot wars for attention with Enda’s slow progress toward recovery and with Martin’s heavy sense of betrayal—at his parents for hiding his true nature from him and at Tina for abandoning him with a bleeding Enda shortly after the accident. Moreover, the ending is disappointingly anticlimactic, with loose ends neatly wrapped up. Physical descriptors are minimal.

Glum and leaden, for all that it’s laced with chills and thrills.