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Cleo Porter and the Body Electric
Jake Burt's Cleo Porter and the Body Electric is a futuristic middle-grade novel about a girl who lives in a hermetically sealed housing development.
A woman is dying. Cleo Porter has her medicine. And no way to deliver it.
Like everyone else, twelve-year-old Cleo and her parents are sealed in an apartment without windows or doors. They never leave. They never get visitors. Their food is dropped off by drones. So they're safe. Safe from the disease that nearly wiped humans from the earth. Safe from everything. The trade-off?
They're alone. Thus, when they receive a package clearly meant for someone else--a package containing a substance critical for a stranger's survival--Cleo is stuck. As a surgeon-in-training, she knows the clock is ticking. But people don't leave their units.
Not ever. Until now.
A woman is dying. Cleo Porter has her medicine. And no way to deliver it.
Like everyone else, twelve-year-old Cleo and her parents are sealed in an apartment without windows or doors. They never leave. They never get visitors. Their food is dropped off by drones. So they're safe. Safe from the disease that nearly wiped humans from the earth. Safe from everything. The trade-off?
They're alone. Thus, when they receive a package clearly meant for someone else--a package containing a substance critical for a stranger's survival--Cleo is stuck. As a surgeon-in-training, she knows the clock is ticking. But people don't leave their units.
Not ever. Until now.
277 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2020
51 people are currently reading
2836 people want to read
About the author
Jake Burt
6 books233 followersJake Burt is an author of middle grade fiction and a 5th grade teacher. He lives in Connecticut, plays the banjo, and enjoys ultimate frisbee. He has yet to meet a rabbit hole he won't go down.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
May 23, 2020
Disclaimer first: I received an ARC of this book from the author to read and review. That has no bearing on the awesomeness that is this book, just on the awesomeness of the author. ;)
Ok, the first book by Jake Burt is Greetings From Witness Protection and it is the BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD. It is VERY closely followed by this book. The other two books didn't grab me like these two (they still grabbed me, but not quite as tightly as Greetings and Cleo), which is kind of funny, as this and Greetings have female MCs and the other two had male MCs. So it is probably a reader thing and not the books themselves.
Anywho, THIS BOOK. I LOVE the MC Cleo, Yorick is adorable and Ms. VAIN is very sweet. Cleo just does NOT give up. I love that about her. She gets hurt, she makes mistakes, but she learns and she fights to do the right thing. She is FIERCE.
The world is scary, but maybe because some of it is so familiar to what we are going through now. It's kinda eerie how forward-seeing Mr. Burt was when he wrote this (being published in October of 2020, but started before then). The world is believable and that's the scary part. I WANT MORE IN THE WORLD!!! (cough cough)
My Boss Lady and I agree, we always want MORE of the world and characters that Mr. Burt creates, because they are so REAL and we want to know more about how they and the other characters fair. Let me tell you, his secondary characters are just as fully fleshed out as the MCs are. Tessa gets like five pages and she felt real to me. I would like more of her please. Thank you! ;)
I don't know what else to say other than my mind died when I finished the book and now I'm experiencing book hangover and no other book will do right now. I teared up, laughed out loud and had to shut the book and try to un-clench various parts of my anatomy that were too tense from what was happening in the book. So REAL.
It seems that too few books bring me into them, where I am living the life of the MC right along with them, where what they are going through I also experience. Jake Burt's books do that to me in spades. Every single one of them welcomes me into it and even after I finish one of them, it takes me a while to separate from it, back into reality.
His writing is on-point, his characters are amazing and real, flawed and just HUMAN. It's refreshing. Also when the big reveal came, I was so shocked, I could have been pushed over with a feather. The one-two punch was .... there are no words.
That ending? ALSO no words, but MAN do I want a sequel to this book SO HARD. My mind was going a million miles a second and I had to discuss the book and my thoughts on it with my Boss Lady who had already read it before bringing it over to me so I could enjoy it too. I did, she did and our discussion was great, because it was just after I had finished it, so I was still more in the world of the book than in our own.
Which, let's be honest, we need to escape the real world now a bit more than ever and this book did that.
I'm trying to not give anything away and to be encouraging to all those out there that this book needs to be procured and read. It's not out til October, so while you are waiting, go pick up Greetings. You can thank me later. :D
5, what are you waiting for get all of his books and pre-order this one if you can, stars. Don't be discouraged if you feel his books are for middle grade readers. They are for all ages, just like Harry Potter, Narnia, etc. HIGHLY recommended, in case the gushing review wasn't obvious enough. :)
Ok, the first book by Jake Burt is Greetings From Witness Protection and it is the BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD. It is VERY closely followed by this book. The other two books didn't grab me like these two (they still grabbed me, but not quite as tightly as Greetings and Cleo), which is kind of funny, as this and Greetings have female MCs and the other two had male MCs. So it is probably a reader thing and not the books themselves.
Anywho, THIS BOOK. I LOVE the MC Cleo, Yorick is adorable and Ms. VAIN is very sweet. Cleo just does NOT give up. I love that about her. She gets hurt, she makes mistakes, but she learns and she fights to do the right thing. She is FIERCE.
The world is scary, but maybe because some of it is so familiar to what we are going through now. It's kinda eerie how forward-seeing Mr. Burt was when he wrote this (being published in October of 2020, but started before then). The world is believable and that's the scary part. I WANT MORE IN THE WORLD!!! (cough cough)
My Boss Lady and I agree, we always want MORE of the world and characters that Mr. Burt creates, because they are so REAL and we want to know more about how they and the other characters fair. Let me tell you, his secondary characters are just as fully fleshed out as the MCs are. Tessa gets like five pages and she felt real to me. I would like more of her please. Thank you! ;)
I don't know what else to say other than my mind died when I finished the book and now I'm experiencing book hangover and no other book will do right now. I teared up, laughed out loud and had to shut the book and try to un-clench various parts of my anatomy that were too tense from what was happening in the book. So REAL.
It seems that too few books bring me into them, where I am living the life of the MC right along with them, where what they are going through I also experience. Jake Burt's books do that to me in spades. Every single one of them welcomes me into it and even after I finish one of them, it takes me a while to separate from it, back into reality.
His writing is on-point, his characters are amazing and real, flawed and just HUMAN. It's refreshing. Also when the big reveal came, I was so shocked, I could have been pushed over with a feather. The one-two punch was .... there are no words.
That ending? ALSO no words, but MAN do I want a sequel to this book SO HARD. My mind was going a million miles a second and I had to discuss the book and my thoughts on it with my Boss Lady who had already read it before bringing it over to me so I could enjoy it too. I did, she did and our discussion was great, because it was just after I had finished it, so I was still more in the world of the book than in our own.
Which, let's be honest, we need to escape the real world now a bit more than ever and this book did that.
I'm trying to not give anything away and to be encouraging to all those out there that this book needs to be procured and read. It's not out til October, so while you are waiting, go pick up Greetings. You can thank me later. :D
5, what are you waiting for get all of his books and pre-order this one if you can, stars. Don't be discouraged if you feel his books are for middle grade readers. They are for all ages, just like Harry Potter, Narnia, etc. HIGHLY recommended, in case the gushing review wasn't obvious enough. :)
January 4, 2023
Of all the children's and YA books first published in 2020, Jake Burt's Cleo Porter and the Body Electric may have been the most timely. The fact that it explores the aftermath of a pandemic isn't even the main reason; rather, it's the ideas offered by the story, ideas that young readers needed to hear at a time when authoritarian politics threatened the free world as they hadn't in decades, perhaps centuries. Twelve-year-old Cleo Porter has never known set foot outside her family's apartment unit. In the year 2027 a novel virus, influenza D, spread through society, killing billions with stunning speed. The survivors used modern technology to construct massive buildings across the world, each packed with apartment units where families and individuals could socially distance to halt the spread of influenza D. Now it's 2096 and humans have resided in these apartments ever since, never straying outside their individual units; robot drones do all the farming and factory work to create products needed for daily life, and ship them directly to a person's unit when they place an order. Virtual reality programs take care of exercise and facilitate social interaction, but Cleo has never met a human in person besides her own parents. The last diagnosed case of influenza D occurred in 2043, but people have no desire to venture outside and trigger a second wave that could finish off the human race. The indoors offers everything they need to stay alive.
Surgery and other medical procedures are done via drone, directed remotely by doctors like Cleo's mother, Knowles Porter. Cleo is on the educational track to become a doctor herself, and much of her day is taken up with intensive study. A test is coming up in a few days to determine her future in the medical profession, and Cleo's Virtual Adaptive Instructional Network teacher—an onscreen artificial intelligence simulation of a woman who Cleo calls Ms. VAIN—encourages her to bear down in these final hours before the test. But Cleo's attention is diverted when a package arrives in her family's delivery tube, addressed to a Miriam Wendemore-Adisa. Cleo has never heard of her, but drones don't make delivery mistakes; the system is calibrated to preclude any possibility of it. Cleo's parents can't explain the delivery and seem uninterested in looking into it, but Cleo grows concerned when she opens the package and sees its contents: three spheres of calotexina florinase, a blue liquid medicine used to treat potentially fatal health symptoms. If Ms. Wendemore-Adisa doesn't receive her shipment soon, she's likely to die. Cleo pleads with her parents to help, but they have no idea what to do, and the apartment's customer service network isn't set up to respond to the "impossible" contingency of a wrongly delivered package. The Porters' apartment doesn't have a door—after all, humans don't leave their units under any circumstances—so there's no way for Cleo to go looking for Ms. Wendemore-Adisa. Ms. VAIN, artificial though she is, seems to care about Cleo, and may have a radical solution...if Cleo has the gall to try it.
Squeezing into the family's delivery tube to "escape" is an extreme tactic, but Cleo refuses to let Ms. Wendemore-Adisa die if she can prevent it. Anxiety pulsing through her veins—is influenza D lurking just outside her unit, waiting to consume its first human in half a century?—Cleo manages to push herself out through a vent into the hallway, where drones of every size and function hurtle along, making deliveries and doing maintenance tasks. Equipped with a technology device so she can access Ms. VAIN, Cleo studies the address system that guides the delivery drones, but Ms. Wendemore-Adisa's unit appears to be on a much higher floor. The apartment hallways are designed for drones, not people, but could Cleo hop on the back of a drone and let it carry her up through the central tunnel? A fall would mean death, but that's also Ms. Wendemore-Adisa's fate if she doesn't get her calotexina florinase. Taking lethal risks doesn't come easy to Cleo, having only ever known the safety of her family's unit, but she takes the plunge...only to find that traveling on the back of a delivery drone is almost impossible. She's moving in the wrong direction, having involuntarily gone down several floors, but there's still a chance to move up to the floor she needs...until, through a series of misfortunes, Cleo is ejected from the building entirely.
Outside. The real outside. No simulator or storybook could convey the sensory overload of this terrifying place where a disease killed most humans not so long ago. Blades of grass brush her ankles, the blazing orb of sun sits overhead, and dazzling blue sky stretches on forever. This isn't safe like her apartment; out here, technology can't shield her from wild animals or coronaviruses. Stomach heavy with dread, Cleo realizes returning home is impossible; the building has no accessible entrance. She still possesses the calotexina florinase, but now not only will Ms. Wendemore-Adisa not get it, Cleo will never see her parents again. The enormity of the mistake she made by exiting the building is overwhelming; she has wrecked her future for a woman she doesn't know. Surely influenza D will set in and finish Cleo off in a matter of days, if not hours. The death sentence looms large.
Yet the real world contains more surprises than Cleo could dream, challenges and opportunities that dwarf those of virtual living. What if there are people out here who chose to take their chances with influenza D rather than be shut away permanently in a building? How will they react at meeting Cleo, a child from "inside?" There is much for her to learn about the ways of the world before humans locked down against the predations of infectious disease. She can't bear to let herself hope, but there may even be a way back inside to reunite with her parents. Could she get the dose of calotexina florinase to Ms. Wendemore-Adisa in time to save her life? Cleo has the power to write a new ending to her own story, but as the child of a society animated by fear, it will take a lot of courage.
I balk at calling books "important"; even if they are, saying so feels ostentatious. Yet if any book I've read deserves the label, it might be Cleo Porter and the Body Electric. Human life is fraught with danger, but using a "better safe than sorry" approach in every situation is a losing strategy. Maximal risk aversion robs us of life's joy while our brief window of opportunity exists to experience it. This is what one survivor, an elderly lady named Angie Purnell, emphasizes to Cleo, who is desperate to get back inside to the only world she has known. "I get it", Angie assures Cleo. "But...That building isn't the sanctuary you think it is. It's not your world. It's not anyone's world." She points to the awesome natural landscape surrounding them. "This is. And it always has been." Cleo objects: "The buildings kept us safe! It's the only way we survived!" "I survived!" Angie answers. "And not by cutting myself off." Angie has more wisdom to share. "(Influenza D)...Might have been cured within weeks, if people weren't so pigheaded!...(but they) got scared. Pointed fingers and screamed at each other. Built walls, all to keep it from spreading. It did anyway. Like it'll always do, because that's how the world works...We could've spent all that money and precious, precious time coming together, searching for a cure. But we didn't. Closed up and shut down instead, n' let the world chew on us, one bite-size piece at a time." Cleo doesn't want to write off the whole idea of mankind hiding in the apartments as being a failure, but Angie points out that failure rarely becomes apparent all at once. "Avalanches start with a single pebble. Hurricanes begin as a breeze. Earthquakes as a tiny tremble. When the world wants in, it gets in. Most of the time, you won't even see it coming." Much as we wish to eradicate them, death and disease are part of life. Thinking we can immunize ourselves by not going out and living is to deprive ourselves of what makes life worthwhile. In the end, death comes anyway; it's the inevitable conclusion of being mortal. Better to devote our years to the joy and discovery of interacting with the real world than to live in perpetual fear. A life of purpose is infinitely greater than one of safety.
Its themes are profound, but Cleo Porter and the Body Electric doesn't achieve its full potential. There are scenes that feel as though they could veer in any direction and we feel the chaos almost as vividly as Cleo does, but ultimately Jake Burt doesn't take his premise far enough: there aren't quite enough thematic connections, plot surprises, or original thought to lift this book into the upper echelon of children's literature. One of my favorite parts comes early on after Ms. VAIN tells Cleo the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, hoping to caution her against reckless action in delivering the medicine to Miriam Wendemore-Adisa. But Cleo draws a different lesson from Red's adventure through dark, scary woods full of carnivores and other dangers. As Cleo notes, "Red goes anyway. She even gets eaten, but she still delivers the medicine, and in the end, she's okay. What if the lesson isn't to avoid the wolves and woods, but to do what's right in spite of them?" If Cleo Porter and the Body Electric inspires us to engage with the risks of normal life and not chase after illusions of absolute security, then the book deserves every bit of praise it gets. I'd consider rating it three stars, but at least two and a half; Jake Burt is an impressive storyteller.
Surgery and other medical procedures are done via drone, directed remotely by doctors like Cleo's mother, Knowles Porter. Cleo is on the educational track to become a doctor herself, and much of her day is taken up with intensive study. A test is coming up in a few days to determine her future in the medical profession, and Cleo's Virtual Adaptive Instructional Network teacher—an onscreen artificial intelligence simulation of a woman who Cleo calls Ms. VAIN—encourages her to bear down in these final hours before the test. But Cleo's attention is diverted when a package arrives in her family's delivery tube, addressed to a Miriam Wendemore-Adisa. Cleo has never heard of her, but drones don't make delivery mistakes; the system is calibrated to preclude any possibility of it. Cleo's parents can't explain the delivery and seem uninterested in looking into it, but Cleo grows concerned when she opens the package and sees its contents: three spheres of calotexina florinase, a blue liquid medicine used to treat potentially fatal health symptoms. If Ms. Wendemore-Adisa doesn't receive her shipment soon, she's likely to die. Cleo pleads with her parents to help, but they have no idea what to do, and the apartment's customer service network isn't set up to respond to the "impossible" contingency of a wrongly delivered package. The Porters' apartment doesn't have a door—after all, humans don't leave their units under any circumstances—so there's no way for Cleo to go looking for Ms. Wendemore-Adisa. Ms. VAIN, artificial though she is, seems to care about Cleo, and may have a radical solution...if Cleo has the gall to try it.
Squeezing into the family's delivery tube to "escape" is an extreme tactic, but Cleo refuses to let Ms. Wendemore-Adisa die if she can prevent it. Anxiety pulsing through her veins—is influenza D lurking just outside her unit, waiting to consume its first human in half a century?—Cleo manages to push herself out through a vent into the hallway, where drones of every size and function hurtle along, making deliveries and doing maintenance tasks. Equipped with a technology device so she can access Ms. VAIN, Cleo studies the address system that guides the delivery drones, but Ms. Wendemore-Adisa's unit appears to be on a much higher floor. The apartment hallways are designed for drones, not people, but could Cleo hop on the back of a drone and let it carry her up through the central tunnel? A fall would mean death, but that's also Ms. Wendemore-Adisa's fate if she doesn't get her calotexina florinase. Taking lethal risks doesn't come easy to Cleo, having only ever known the safety of her family's unit, but she takes the plunge...only to find that traveling on the back of a delivery drone is almost impossible. She's moving in the wrong direction, having involuntarily gone down several floors, but there's still a chance to move up to the floor she needs...until, through a series of misfortunes, Cleo is ejected from the building entirely.
Outside. The real outside. No simulator or storybook could convey the sensory overload of this terrifying place where a disease killed most humans not so long ago. Blades of grass brush her ankles, the blazing orb of sun sits overhead, and dazzling blue sky stretches on forever. This isn't safe like her apartment; out here, technology can't shield her from wild animals or coronaviruses. Stomach heavy with dread, Cleo realizes returning home is impossible; the building has no accessible entrance. She still possesses the calotexina florinase, but now not only will Ms. Wendemore-Adisa not get it, Cleo will never see her parents again. The enormity of the mistake she made by exiting the building is overwhelming; she has wrecked her future for a woman she doesn't know. Surely influenza D will set in and finish Cleo off in a matter of days, if not hours. The death sentence looms large.
Yet the real world contains more surprises than Cleo could dream, challenges and opportunities that dwarf those of virtual living. What if there are people out here who chose to take their chances with influenza D rather than be shut away permanently in a building? How will they react at meeting Cleo, a child from "inside?" There is much for her to learn about the ways of the world before humans locked down against the predations of infectious disease. She can't bear to let herself hope, but there may even be a way back inside to reunite with her parents. Could she get the dose of calotexina florinase to Ms. Wendemore-Adisa in time to save her life? Cleo has the power to write a new ending to her own story, but as the child of a society animated by fear, it will take a lot of courage.
I balk at calling books "important"; even if they are, saying so feels ostentatious. Yet if any book I've read deserves the label, it might be Cleo Porter and the Body Electric. Human life is fraught with danger, but using a "better safe than sorry" approach in every situation is a losing strategy. Maximal risk aversion robs us of life's joy while our brief window of opportunity exists to experience it. This is what one survivor, an elderly lady named Angie Purnell, emphasizes to Cleo, who is desperate to get back inside to the only world she has known. "I get it", Angie assures Cleo. "But...That building isn't the sanctuary you think it is. It's not your world. It's not anyone's world." She points to the awesome natural landscape surrounding them. "This is. And it always has been." Cleo objects: "The buildings kept us safe! It's the only way we survived!" "I survived!" Angie answers. "And not by cutting myself off." Angie has more wisdom to share. "(Influenza D)...Might have been cured within weeks, if people weren't so pigheaded!...(but they) got scared. Pointed fingers and screamed at each other. Built walls, all to keep it from spreading. It did anyway. Like it'll always do, because that's how the world works...We could've spent all that money and precious, precious time coming together, searching for a cure. But we didn't. Closed up and shut down instead, n' let the world chew on us, one bite-size piece at a time." Cleo doesn't want to write off the whole idea of mankind hiding in the apartments as being a failure, but Angie points out that failure rarely becomes apparent all at once. "Avalanches start with a single pebble. Hurricanes begin as a breeze. Earthquakes as a tiny tremble. When the world wants in, it gets in. Most of the time, you won't even see it coming." Much as we wish to eradicate them, death and disease are part of life. Thinking we can immunize ourselves by not going out and living is to deprive ourselves of what makes life worthwhile. In the end, death comes anyway; it's the inevitable conclusion of being mortal. Better to devote our years to the joy and discovery of interacting with the real world than to live in perpetual fear. A life of purpose is infinitely greater than one of safety.
Its themes are profound, but Cleo Porter and the Body Electric doesn't achieve its full potential. There are scenes that feel as though they could veer in any direction and we feel the chaos almost as vividly as Cleo does, but ultimately Jake Burt doesn't take his premise far enough: there aren't quite enough thematic connections, plot surprises, or original thought to lift this book into the upper echelon of children's literature. One of my favorite parts comes early on after Ms. VAIN tells Cleo the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, hoping to caution her against reckless action in delivering the medicine to Miriam Wendemore-Adisa. But Cleo draws a different lesson from Red's adventure through dark, scary woods full of carnivores and other dangers. As Cleo notes, "Red goes anyway. She even gets eaten, but she still delivers the medicine, and in the end, she's okay. What if the lesson isn't to avoid the wolves and woods, but to do what's right in spite of them?" If Cleo Porter and the Body Electric inspires us to engage with the risks of normal life and not chase after illusions of absolute security, then the book deserves every bit of praise it gets. I'd consider rating it three stars, but at least two and a half; Jake Burt is an impressive storyteller.
July 4, 2022
A thrilling read set in a future hauntingly not so different from our current pandemic predicament.
The relevance of a book about humans living in fear of infection was perhaps the most hard-hitting aspect of this book. Seeing the way people shut themselves off from the real world long after the disease had gone was, quite frankly, heartbreaking because it’s an entirely real possibility for us too that we’ll be feeling the adverse effects of Covid long after it’s gone which could lead to a similar situation for us. And, as such, the lack of humanity in this book was a constant knife to the heart. Luckily, the protagonist, Cleo, had enough humanity in her one compassionate thought than every cowardly person hiding in their sheltered box of a home.
Seeing Cleo discover the outside world for the first time was a thing of beauty. It was touching and poignant and I loved that. Cleo, with her childlike innocence, faced so many threats valiantly. The adventure in this book was relentless!
The ending had me shocked and clamouring for more. There was much left unexplained and up to the reader’s imagination which is a writing tactic I’ve always hated. The lack of closure really impeded on me being able to confidently give this 5 stars, especially as I also felt that not enough time was spent at the end on showing the authority figures being more ruthlessly questioned for their actions or lack thereof. There could’ve been some really interesting discussions that could’ve taken this book to another level; it laid all the right foundations and it seemed a waste to not make a statement with it.
(Recommended by Lynn)
The relevance of a book about humans living in fear of infection was perhaps the most hard-hitting aspect of this book. Seeing the way people shut themselves off from the real world long after the disease had gone was, quite frankly, heartbreaking because it’s an entirely real possibility for us too that we’ll be feeling the adverse effects of Covid long after it’s gone which could lead to a similar situation for us. And, as such, the lack of humanity in this book was a constant knife to the heart. Luckily, the protagonist, Cleo, had enough humanity in her one compassionate thought than every cowardly person hiding in their sheltered box of a home.
Seeing Cleo discover the outside world for the first time was a thing of beauty. It was touching and poignant and I loved that. Cleo, with her childlike innocence, faced so many threats valiantly. The adventure in this book was relentless!
The ending had me shocked and clamouring for more. There was much left unexplained and up to the reader’s imagination which is a writing tactic I’ve always hated. The lack of closure really impeded on me being able to confidently give this 5 stars, especially as I also felt that not enough time was spent at the end on showing the authority figures being more ruthlessly questioned for their actions or lack thereof. There could’ve been some really interesting discussions that could’ve taken this book to another level; it laid all the right foundations and it seemed a waste to not make a statement with it.
(Recommended by Lynn)
December 29, 2020
I’m not sure what took me so long, but I’m glad I finally read this book. What a blast it was! I could definitely see this making it to the big screen. Just imagine being sealed up in an apartment and never going outside, never seeing another person except for your own family. Everything is virtual and everything you need is delivered by drones. For your own safety and to protect you from the flu virus. Okay, maybe a little too close to home right now, but I think that’s what grabbed me and pulled me right into this story. I cannot wait to book talk this with my students.
May 24, 2021
I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed Greetings from Witness Protection, which I didn't think was possible!
June 30, 2020
This upcoming sci-fi story by Jake Burt was such a fun adventure! Set in a future where people are isolated to prevent the spread of disease & all supplies are delivered by drones, Cleo ventures outside her home to embark on a life-saving quest. This timely story will keep you turning the pages and will leave you imagining a world where drones do all the work.
March 24, 2021
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
It surprised me how much I loved this book! For some reason, the cover made me think it was going to be another superhero chosen-one story, but it wasn’t that at all. Yes, Cleo goes on a quest, but it’s a quest to leave her world’s absolute quarantine in order to save just one person who she believes is in danger. Mind you, the book was written well before COVID, so it felt sort of eerie to be reading a book set in a futuristic world where everyone lived in total and complete quarantine—literally no one ever leaves their own apartment. But when Cleo gets an accidental shipment of life-saving medication, she realizes that the intended recipient might die without it, and she sets off on a dangerous journey into the underbelly of her automated apartment complex. Her robotic companion Yorick adds a fun touch to the story and the story ends up taking many unexpected twists along the way. I think kids today will get a kick out of seeing quarantine taken to an extreme!
It surprised me how much I loved this book! For some reason, the cover made me think it was going to be another superhero chosen-one story, but it wasn’t that at all. Yes, Cleo goes on a quest, but it’s a quest to leave her world’s absolute quarantine in order to save just one person who she believes is in danger. Mind you, the book was written well before COVID, so it felt sort of eerie to be reading a book set in a futuristic world where everyone lived in total and complete quarantine—literally no one ever leaves their own apartment. But when Cleo gets an accidental shipment of life-saving medication, she realizes that the intended recipient might die without it, and she sets off on a dangerous journey into the underbelly of her automated apartment complex. Her robotic companion Yorick adds a fun touch to the story and the story ends up taking many unexpected twists along the way. I think kids today will get a kick out of seeing quarantine taken to an extreme!
May 16, 2020
I definitely didn't expect to cry at the end of this incredibly prescient novel. Jake Burt envisions a world that is supposed to be sci fi, but that resembles now a little too closely. The future after a pandemic, futuristic tech, AI living structures, dystopian safety, and, of course, brave heroine who finds herself uncovering the truth. What is the price of keeping people safe? What are we willing to sacrifice for the greater good?
Along this journey one of my favorite character's is Cleo's virtual teacher. Mrs. VAIN is everything we are missing right now in online education. A warm, caring, SEL skilled teacher who reassures Cleo, praises her in all the right ways, and is available on demand. I can't imagine that this emotionally intuitive AI can ever be created in reality, but it sure makes the reader think.
Jake Burt takes readers on an exciting adventure, with a biological analogy, a original dystopian world, an array of drones, and a masterful twist!!! I loved every minute and can't wait to share it with my teachers and students!
Along this journey one of my favorite character's is Cleo's virtual teacher. Mrs. VAIN is everything we are missing right now in online education. A warm, caring, SEL skilled teacher who reassures Cleo, praises her in all the right ways, and is available on demand. I can't imagine that this emotionally intuitive AI can ever be created in reality, but it sure makes the reader think.
Jake Burt takes readers on an exciting adventure, with a biological analogy, a original dystopian world, an array of drones, and a masterful twist!!! I loved every minute and can't wait to share it with my teachers and students!
August 19, 2020
Kids looking for an adventure will enjoy Cleo's journey out of the safety of her sanitized apartment building into the great unknown to deliver a life-saving package. Add in a drone as a sidekick, an AI assistant, and monstrous machines, and readers will be drawn in to this subtly post-apocalyptic tale. Astute readers won't miss the parallels to the present.
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.
February 22, 2021
This is a fun, adventurous middle grade book to introduce young readers to sci-fi.
April 30, 2021
This was fun. Jake Burt is an author to watch.
September 27, 2022
Sometimes you just need a break from heavy ponderous tomes -- so read a novel intended for middle-schoolers! I needed a fun read, and this book fulfilled that quite well.
Begun in 2018 and published in 2020, Burt's prescient vision of a world where we stay in our homes, have everything we need delivered to that home, and school, work, and other interpersonal interactions occur online seemed eerily accurate. Cleo provided a refreshing MC, a bright and compassionate 12-year-old who has never known the Outside. The novel contains two twists, one predictable and one less so, but both well delivered and consistent with the world he describes.
I rated this a 4-star and not five, as there is one overlong passage [Chapter 29] of Cleo's travails that bored me enough to skim; guessing the intended audience would experience difficulty here as well.
Looking for a sci-fi novel to engage middle-grade readers? I recommend The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera, also appropriate for older teens and adults as well.
Begun in 2018 and published in 2020, Burt's prescient vision of a world where we stay in our homes, have everything we need delivered to that home, and school, work, and other interpersonal interactions occur online seemed eerily accurate. Cleo provided a refreshing MC, a bright and compassionate 12-year-old who has never known the Outside. The novel contains two twists, one predictable and one less so, but both well delivered and consistent with the world he describes.
I rated this a 4-star and not five, as there is one overlong passage [Chapter 29] of Cleo's travails that bored me enough to skim; guessing the intended audience would experience difficulty here as well.
Looking for a sci-fi novel to engage middle-grade readers? I recommend The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera, also appropriate for older teens and adults as well.
July 4, 2021
If you need a book that you won’t be able to resist to put down… This one is for you! I was enthralled by this prescient middle grade book as soon as I read the first page. Let alone, the cover is captivating itself.
Even though this is set many decades ahead of present time, you can see how realistic the living situation could be if indeed a virus wiped out a majority of the population. I liked that Cleo’s apartment wasn’t completely “tech-ified” but incorporated many elements that would deem futuristic, like distance learning with Mrs. VAIN, her robotic and all-knowing teacher. Mrs. VAIN is the perfect teacher because of how kind, compassionate, and reassuring she is for Cleo. Cleo has many mental breakdowns and Mrs. VAIN was typically there to help her strategize and calm down. Another futuristic aspect I thought was neat was the simulator. Cleo’s dad tries to make a dry grass for a fall-based soccer field and Cleo gets to test it out in the simulator. In this simulator, she can travel anywhere she wants and even meets up with “friends” aka other quarantined kids.
What really kept me on the edge is the mayhem that occurs when Cleo escapes her apartment (I won’t share too much). There are drones that fly everywhere to deliver groceries, home goods, medicine, and more, but the elements that Cleo faces made me so nervous for her. It was wonderful to learn more about her as a person when she was trying to complete this dangerous journey, and how the end of the book just riled me up. I wasn’t expecting to cry, but I sure did. This book needed to be published like yesterday, BUT October 6th will have to do!
Even though this is set many decades ahead of present time, you can see how realistic the living situation could be if indeed a virus wiped out a majority of the population. I liked that Cleo’s apartment wasn’t completely “tech-ified” but incorporated many elements that would deem futuristic, like distance learning with Mrs. VAIN, her robotic and all-knowing teacher. Mrs. VAIN is the perfect teacher because of how kind, compassionate, and reassuring she is for Cleo. Cleo has many mental breakdowns and Mrs. VAIN was typically there to help her strategize and calm down. Another futuristic aspect I thought was neat was the simulator. Cleo’s dad tries to make a dry grass for a fall-based soccer field and Cleo gets to test it out in the simulator. In this simulator, she can travel anywhere she wants and even meets up with “friends” aka other quarantined kids.
What really kept me on the edge is the mayhem that occurs when Cleo escapes her apartment (I won’t share too much). There are drones that fly everywhere to deliver groceries, home goods, medicine, and more, but the elements that Cleo faces made me so nervous for her. It was wonderful to learn more about her as a person when she was trying to complete this dangerous journey, and how the end of the book just riled me up. I wasn’t expecting to cry, but I sure did. This book needed to be published like yesterday, BUT October 6th will have to do!
July 3, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
I love everything this author writes, and even though this is extremely different from his realistic fiction, I think it's a fantastic story. Although publishing during a pandemic is far from ideal, I think more readers will find this book because of its timely subject, which I hope will lead them to find his other underrated books.
There is so much character growth in this story as Cleo transforms from a girl confined to her home to avoid possible contamination with a deadly strain of influenza, to a thoughtful, brave and giving individual. Her anxiety, which is present from the outset, is not something to overcome but to face and work through as she focuses on things that matter to her. Her compassion and desire to help others were admirable qualities that would make her a wonderful doctor. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Angie, whose mentorship helped Cleo learn so much about herself.
I highly recommend this book, and think it would lead to some fascinating and very timely discussions with students regarding fear, isolation, history, and learning how to cope in the aftermath of a deadly illness.
I love everything this author writes, and even though this is extremely different from his realistic fiction, I think it's a fantastic story. Although publishing during a pandemic is far from ideal, I think more readers will find this book because of its timely subject, which I hope will lead them to find his other underrated books.
There is so much character growth in this story as Cleo transforms from a girl confined to her home to avoid possible contamination with a deadly strain of influenza, to a thoughtful, brave and giving individual. Her anxiety, which is present from the outset, is not something to overcome but to face and work through as she focuses on things that matter to her. Her compassion and desire to help others were admirable qualities that would make her a wonderful doctor. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Angie, whose mentorship helped Cleo learn so much about herself.
I highly recommend this book, and think it would lead to some fascinating and very timely discussions with students regarding fear, isolation, history, and learning how to cope in the aftermath of a deadly illness.
August 16, 2020
So good I read it twice! The first time I raced through to find out if Cleo would deliver the medicine in time (or even survive her amazing adventure) and then the second time I picked up on so many details I missed the first time. Wonderful pacing, perfect chapter lengths with well-timed cliff hangers, an intriguing premise, and so much humanity (especially for the fact that Cleo is the only "person" for most of the adventure). I especially loved the ending, but no spoiler alerts from me. Well done and a science fiction read aloud contender for sure! #LitReviewCrew
February 1, 2021
This book started out really amazing. (WARNING MOST GIFs in the history of a GoodReads review EVER)
This was just like a Covid-19 fantasy novel, except set in 2096.
Apparently, in 2027, a deadly virus broke out called Influenza D and we weren't able to contain or exterminate it for various reasons, so we all went into pods and small units and were forced to live without ever seeing the contact of a human except through virtual reality, and all the food/items are delivered by drones through a thing called the "tubes" so that there is no human contact. Ever...
In fact, Cleo has never even seen the real earth.
Sounds cool right?
So yeah. No people. Remember that. People = bad.
This is where the story starts.
Cleo is a surgeon in training, where she will be able to operate on people through drones so that still, no human contact required. While she's having a skippy dandy day studying for her extremely-large-test, a package arrives through the tubes.
But wait? How come it's not addressed to them?
She opens it up to find a life-saving medicine for the swelling of the brain inside that someone (apparently called Miriam) will die without.
So she tries to fix it and contact the electronic service saying "Um HELLO, you've got the wrong unit" but instead everyone keeps telling her "The drones don't make mistakes, silly.".
Overcome with compassion, she totally disobeys her parents orders (because a woman is out there DYING somewhere!) hitches a ride through the tubes (EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!) and leaves the unit she has lived and been born in her entire life.
So to sum up the rest of the story, she hacks the system to find Miriam's address, makes a little drone friend, accidentally crashes on earth, nearly kills herself several times, bleeds a lot, fights big robots, and then finally she makes it back to the whole system of units in the sky, finds her way to Miriam's apartment gasping for breath and almost ready to drop, and finds...
Oops! The whole thing was actually a test! Remember her little drone friend? That was her parents monitoring her. Remember dying Miriam? She's not real.
Basically everyone is like, "Well, we didn't MEAN for you to take it so SERIOUSLY and actually run away or go through any of that. We just wanted to see how you'd react. I mean, you weren't supposed to LEAVE or any of that. *careless shrug*
SERIOUSLY?!
What happened to MIRIAM? And the WHOOOOLE plot you set up about a dying woman and how urgent it was? Don't you know that's one of the worst writers mistakes you can make!!??? Setting us up for something then pulling the whole "IT was all a dream!" "it was all a test!" "It was all fake :D"
Like, Cleo must've felt so bad! Her parents were telling her it didn't matter that someone was dying and Cleo set out to prove them wrong, that every life DID matter! Now imagine how CLEO FEELS RIGHT NOW HUH!? She was supposed to prove her parents wrong, not be the idiotic one.
Ugh here's another GIF just because I'm upset.
Alternate ending for you next time Jake, make it that her parents WERE monitoring her, but the package WAS actually real. Cleo takes package and runs, ends up finding the lady who is almost dead and preforms surgery on her, proves to everyone that Influenza D doesn't exist instead of EVERYTHING GOING BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS and then everyone says "Wow Cleo, you were right and so brave here's your degree."
Stupid? Maybe, yes. But it's human nature. We don't want to read a book about how the mc was wrong. What's the point??
So. Why did I rate this book 4 stars you ask?
Because it was an awesome idea. The plans were really well laid out and totally believable, and everything felt real. Which is why it was such a let down when they blew it on you that everything was actually fake.
This was actually a really fun read, but the problem is the ending upset me so badly, I can't rate it 5 stars.
Jake might be an author I'd watch in the future if he can get his act together. ^^ He definitely has writing talent.
And now here's a GIF for you to leave with :)
Thanks for sticking around till the end of the review!
This was just like a Covid-19 fantasy novel, except set in 2096.
Apparently, in 2027, a deadly virus broke out called Influenza D and we weren't able to contain or exterminate it for various reasons, so we all went into pods and small units and were forced to live without ever seeing the contact of a human except through virtual reality, and all the food/items are delivered by drones through a thing called the "tubes" so that there is no human contact. Ever...
In fact, Cleo has never even seen the real earth.
Sounds cool right?
So yeah. No people. Remember that. People = bad.
This is where the story starts.
Cleo is a surgeon in training, where she will be able to operate on people through drones so that still, no human contact required. While she's having a skippy dandy day studying for her extremely-large-test, a package arrives through the tubes.
But wait? How come it's not addressed to them?
She opens it up to find a life-saving medicine for the swelling of the brain inside that someone (apparently called Miriam) will die without.
So she tries to fix it and contact the electronic service saying "Um HELLO, you've got the wrong unit" but instead everyone keeps telling her "The drones don't make mistakes, silly.".
Overcome with compassion, she totally disobeys her parents orders (because a woman is out there DYING somewhere!) hitches a ride through the tubes (EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!) and leaves the unit she has lived and been born in her entire life.
So to sum up the rest of the story, she hacks the system to find Miriam's address, makes a little drone friend, accidentally crashes on earth, nearly kills herself several times, bleeds a lot, fights big robots, and then finally she makes it back to the whole system of units in the sky, finds her way to Miriam's apartment gasping for breath and almost ready to drop, and finds...
Oops! The whole thing was actually a test! Remember her little drone friend? That was her parents monitoring her. Remember dying Miriam? She's not real.
Basically everyone is like, "Well, we didn't MEAN for you to take it so SERIOUSLY and actually run away or go through any of that. We just wanted to see how you'd react. I mean, you weren't supposed to LEAVE or any of that. *careless shrug*
SERIOUSLY?!
What happened to MIRIAM? And the WHOOOOLE plot you set up about a dying woman and how urgent it was? Don't you know that's one of the worst writers mistakes you can make!!??? Setting us up for something then pulling the whole "IT was all a dream!" "it was all a test!" "It was all fake :D"
Like, Cleo must've felt so bad! Her parents were telling her it didn't matter that someone was dying and Cleo set out to prove them wrong, that every life DID matter! Now imagine how CLEO FEELS RIGHT NOW HUH!? She was supposed to prove her parents wrong, not be the idiotic one.
Ugh here's another GIF just because I'm upset.
Alternate ending for you next time Jake, make it that her parents WERE monitoring her, but the package WAS actually real. Cleo takes package and runs, ends up finding the lady who is almost dead and preforms surgery on her, proves to everyone that Influenza D doesn't exist instead of EVERYTHING GOING BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS and then everyone says "Wow Cleo, you were right and so brave here's your degree."
Stupid? Maybe, yes. But it's human nature. We don't want to read a book about how the mc was wrong. What's the point??
So. Why did I rate this book 4 stars you ask?
Because it was an awesome idea. The plans were really well laid out and totally believable, and everything felt real. Which is why it was such a let down when they blew it on you that everything was actually fake.
This was actually a really fun read, but the problem is the ending upset me so badly, I can't rate it 5 stars.
Jake might be an author I'd watch in the future if he can get his act together. ^^ He definitely has writing talent.
And now here's a GIF for you to leave with :)
Thanks for sticking around till the end of the review!
September 10, 2024
Ever since the outbreak of Influenza D, surviving people have lived in self-contained units within block cities run by robots and drones. Cleo has never been outside of her family's apartment in person. She visits with others virtually and does school with her AI teacher Ms. VAIN while her mom does virtual surgeries and her dad figures out how to program virtual grass to feel more like the real thing. Cleo is training to be a surgeon herself, and her first qualifying test is soon. She should be studying for it, but there's been a distraction. A package arrived to their apartment addressed to someone who doesn't live there, and the package contains medicine that indicates the addressee has a brain condition which would mean getting the medicine a matter of life or death. The system insists it didn't make a mistake. Her parents insist mistakes don't happen with the package delivery system, but the box of medicine in their living room begs to differ. Cleo feels responsible for this mystery person like she's one of Cleo's patients. If the drones won't listen to her, Cleo will have to figure out a way outside of their living quarters risking influenza D exposure if she wants to save this lady's life.
It is really crazy to think this was published just as covid was becoming a reality in the world and that Burt wrote this in the pre-pandemic time period. It sounds like an all too believable outcome of a pandemic, taking sheltering in place to the nth degree. I like Cleo's dedication to helping a stranger, even when just getting outside is a challenge and scary thing (there isn't even a door in their apt so she has to figure out how to get outside first). Kids will like how Cleo has adventures on her own, and the imaginative robots and others she meets along the way. A thought-provoking dystopia with a plucky, caring main character.
Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: Some run ins with pest-controlling robots results in some injuries.
Ethnic diversity: I don't clearly remember physical descriptions of many people.
LGBTQ+ content: Cleo might have had one online friend with 2 parents of the same gender.
Other: Social isolation, abandonment, ethical dilemmas, and survival in potentially dangerous situations all explored.
It is really crazy to think this was published just as covid was becoming a reality in the world and that Burt wrote this in the pre-pandemic time period. It sounds like an all too believable outcome of a pandemic, taking sheltering in place to the nth degree. I like Cleo's dedication to helping a stranger, even when just getting outside is a challenge and scary thing (there isn't even a door in their apt so she has to figure out how to get outside first). Kids will like how Cleo has adventures on her own, and the imaginative robots and others she meets along the way. A thought-provoking dystopia with a plucky, caring main character.
Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: Some run ins with pest-controlling robots results in some injuries.
Ethnic diversity: I don't clearly remember physical descriptions of many people.
LGBTQ+ content: Cleo might have had one online friend with 2 parents of the same gender.
Other: Social isolation, abandonment, ethical dilemmas, and survival in potentially dangerous situations all explored.
October 8, 2020
Thank you to Edelweiss + and the publisher for a digital eARC of this book.
When I first stumbled across my first Jake Burt book (his first book) Greetings From Witness Protection, I knew I had found another author I would be sharing with kids. Why? He GETS middle-grade kids – their humour, what topics and issues THEY want to learn about and how they interact with one another. Ever since reading that first book, I eagerly await and look for his new releases. When he first shared on Twitter that he was writing a sci-fi book talking about the human body, I was EXCITED because I love all things anatomy and physiology.
Mr. Burt wrote this story pre-pandemic, which is another reason this story is relevant. Eerily close to home, Mr. Burt creates a world where there are similarities that we are experiencing today – staying at home due to a pandemic, having items delivered, and young people taught virtually in the safety of their home.
Set in the future, Cleo Porter and her parents, like the rest of the world, lives indoors. No one goes out, and no one comes in due to a strain of the flu that nearly wiped out the entire human population. Everything they need gets delivered to their portal via drones. Cleo hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a surgeon and studies virtually with her instructor Mrs. VAIN (Virtual Adaptive Instructional Network). Cleo’s life is busy preparing for exams until the delivery of life-saving medicine comes through their portal. The problem is, Miriam Wendemore-Adisa does not live there. Right person, wrong address, and Cleo’s parents preoccupied with their work leave the issue with Cleo thinking it will be a quick fix, only it’s not.
The ordering system does not recognize the mistake, and now Cleo has to decide what to do next. Cleo believes her only option is to deliver the medicine herself. Cleo and readers discover the world beyond the portal. Cleo ventures out beyond the confines of her apartment, into the intricacies of the building and outside. As she figures out how to find Miriam Wendemore-Adisa’s portal, Cleo compares the different components of the building to the various human body systems that she is studying.
Despite all of Cleo’s good intentions to deliver the medicine, she finds herself outside the building and at the mercy of the environment. Only then does she learn that people exist on the outside when she finds Angie, an older woman and a young girl named Paige. Both become her teacher in other ways and help her eventually get back inside.
Readers will relate to being inside, and what use to be everyday activities such as playing outside and going shopping now look very different. There are bigger takeaways to this story; how Cleo gains confidence and decides how compassion and empathy will guide her rather than rules and regulations, how the confines of a room are not what is best for everyone and how we look after or don’t look after everyone in a crisis. The lesson of helping out others and doing the right thing is a timely reminder when younger people get bombarded with many adults who are struggling with this during the pandemic.
I am not surprised that I have another book of Mr. Burt’s to recommend for teaching colleagues and readers of middle-grade books and look forward to his fifth book.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND: Gr. 4+
When I first stumbled across my first Jake Burt book (his first book) Greetings From Witness Protection, I knew I had found another author I would be sharing with kids. Why? He GETS middle-grade kids – their humour, what topics and issues THEY want to learn about and how they interact with one another. Ever since reading that first book, I eagerly await and look for his new releases. When he first shared on Twitter that he was writing a sci-fi book talking about the human body, I was EXCITED because I love all things anatomy and physiology.
Mr. Burt wrote this story pre-pandemic, which is another reason this story is relevant. Eerily close to home, Mr. Burt creates a world where there are similarities that we are experiencing today – staying at home due to a pandemic, having items delivered, and young people taught virtually in the safety of their home.
Set in the future, Cleo Porter and her parents, like the rest of the world, lives indoors. No one goes out, and no one comes in due to a strain of the flu that nearly wiped out the entire human population. Everything they need gets delivered to their portal via drones. Cleo hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a surgeon and studies virtually with her instructor Mrs. VAIN (Virtual Adaptive Instructional Network). Cleo’s life is busy preparing for exams until the delivery of life-saving medicine comes through their portal. The problem is, Miriam Wendemore-Adisa does not live there. Right person, wrong address, and Cleo’s parents preoccupied with their work leave the issue with Cleo thinking it will be a quick fix, only it’s not.
The ordering system does not recognize the mistake, and now Cleo has to decide what to do next. Cleo believes her only option is to deliver the medicine herself. Cleo and readers discover the world beyond the portal. Cleo ventures out beyond the confines of her apartment, into the intricacies of the building and outside. As she figures out how to find Miriam Wendemore-Adisa’s portal, Cleo compares the different components of the building to the various human body systems that she is studying.
Despite all of Cleo’s good intentions to deliver the medicine, she finds herself outside the building and at the mercy of the environment. Only then does she learn that people exist on the outside when she finds Angie, an older woman and a young girl named Paige. Both become her teacher in other ways and help her eventually get back inside.
Readers will relate to being inside, and what use to be everyday activities such as playing outside and going shopping now look very different. There are bigger takeaways to this story; how Cleo gains confidence and decides how compassion and empathy will guide her rather than rules and regulations, how the confines of a room are not what is best for everyone and how we look after or don’t look after everyone in a crisis. The lesson of helping out others and doing the right thing is a timely reminder when younger people get bombarded with many adults who are struggling with this during the pandemic.
I am not surprised that I have another book of Mr. Burt’s to recommend for teaching colleagues and readers of middle-grade books and look forward to his fifth book.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND: Gr. 4+
October 30, 2020
The story inside the cover of this book was not what I was expecting.
The cover makes it look like this is about a futuristic world where evil robots are taking over the world, but those evil robots better watch out because there is a tough girl with super powers about to take them on!
Nope. Not what this story is AT ALL.
First of all, If you read this in the year 2020 when it was published like I did you will see a startling parallel between what is happening in the book and what is happening to us right now. This book has people isolated to protect themselves from a pandemic that happened over 50 years ago. It examines the question, “What do you give up in order to stay safe?”
Second, instead of being the tough, rough-around-the-edges, “don’t mess with me; I’m super cool” girl heroine that I’ve gotten so sick of lately, Cleo Porter was kind, caring, smart, brave, and REAL. That is really what I liked most about this book. Cleo felt SO real... she couldn’t do everything all at once, she hyperventilated and threw up when things were crazy for her, and she fell off of drones instead of magically being strong enough to hang on. Cleo was a great protagonist.
The issues? Well, the ending didn’t quite do it for me. I kind of thought... that’s it? I just felt there wasn’t enough growth, development, and change.
BUT... I have to say, this may be the first book that came out this year that has actually kept me reading. Lately, I read the first few lines of a new book and think, “Meh. No.” So kudos to Cleo Porter and the Body Electric for keeping me reading.
It was fun and the author did a great job introducing the world to the reader.
I’d recommend this book for kids and preteens from 5th-8th grade.
The cover makes it look like this is about a futuristic world where evil robots are taking over the world, but those evil robots better watch out because there is a tough girl with super powers about to take them on!
Nope. Not what this story is AT ALL.
First of all, If you read this in the year 2020 when it was published like I did you will see a startling parallel between what is happening in the book and what is happening to us right now. This book has people isolated to protect themselves from a pandemic that happened over 50 years ago. It examines the question, “What do you give up in order to stay safe?”
Second, instead of being the tough, rough-around-the-edges, “don’t mess with me; I’m super cool” girl heroine that I’ve gotten so sick of lately, Cleo Porter was kind, caring, smart, brave, and REAL. That is really what I liked most about this book. Cleo felt SO real... she couldn’t do everything all at once, she hyperventilated and threw up when things were crazy for her, and she fell off of drones instead of magically being strong enough to hang on. Cleo was a great protagonist.
The issues? Well, the ending didn’t quite do it for me. I kind of thought... that’s it? I just felt there wasn’t enough growth, development, and change.
BUT... I have to say, this may be the first book that came out this year that has actually kept me reading. Lately, I read the first few lines of a new book and think, “Meh. No.” So kudos to Cleo Porter and the Body Electric for keeping me reading.
It was fun and the author did a great job introducing the world to the reader.
I’d recommend this book for kids and preteens from 5th-8th grade.
October 25, 2020
*I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher courtesy of NetGalley*
I wish I had been able to sit down and just read this book. It took me weeks because I've had so many other responsibilities pulling at me. However, it was very readable and every time I sat down with it I had to make myself stop reading. Cleo's heart and determination, as well as all of her adventures, made this a very enjoyable story that I look forward to sharing with my students.
This book does address a worldwide pandemic, but I think the way it is handled makes it not scary. And really, it is more a device to develop the setting instead of a direct problem for the protagonist.
I think this would probably make a good read aloud for an upper elementary classroom, or an enjoyable read for an independent reader who is looking for a spunky heroine and a touch of sci fi.
I wish I had been able to sit down and just read this book. It took me weeks because I've had so many other responsibilities pulling at me. However, it was very readable and every time I sat down with it I had to make myself stop reading. Cleo's heart and determination, as well as all of her adventures, made this a very enjoyable story that I look forward to sharing with my students.
This book does address a worldwide pandemic, but I think the way it is handled makes it not scary. And really, it is more a device to develop the setting instead of a direct problem for the protagonist.
I think this would probably make a good read aloud for an upper elementary classroom, or an enjoyable read for an independent reader who is looking for a spunky heroine and a touch of sci fi.
October 23, 2020
I have been looking forward to reading this since earlier this year and it did not disappoint. Read most of it in one sitting. Lots of adventure and suspense amid a pandemic that is a little too close to the current situation we are all living! Cleo is a smart young girl on a mission to deliver medicine mistakenly delivered to her home by a drone that supposedly doesn't make mistakes, in an effort to save the life of the woman whose name is on the package. Her journey not only takers Cleo outside her comfort zone, it takes her outside of the safety and protected space of her home and building, a place no one had left in years for fear of getting sick. Cleo is accompanied by a small drone and her "teacher" who she is connected with via an electronic tablet...and encounters people and things she never could have imagined existed. The ending leaves an opening for a sequel that I hope Jake Burt is well on his way to writing.
December 8, 2020
Cleo Porter plans to be a surgeon like her mother. She's working hard to prepare for the test she must pass to continue her training. The arrival of a package through her apartment's delivery tube distracts her. A devastating pandemic lead to the dystopic conditions under which Cleo and her parents live. She has never left her family apartment. All her training and outside communicating is handled through various forms of technology. All deliveries come through a tube. And mistakes just don't happen. Yet the package that was just delivered is addressed to someone who doesn't live with them and contains life-saving medicine.
Despite her parents' explanation that the delivery system doesn't make mistakes and that she should just forget about the package, Cleo can't let go of the idea that the person will die if she doesn't get her medicine. Cleo takes matters into her own hands and climbs out of her family's apartment through the tube. She takes a few supplies, the package, and her device through which she talks with her AI instructor, Mrs. VAIN. But Cleo finds herself facing enormous challenges trying to find the mysterious person not to mention avoiding all the different types of drones. After confronting a number of difficulties, Cleo finds herself outside of the building. This is shocking for someone who has never been outside. And discovering that there are people living outside is even more startling. And then there's the problem of getting back inside to deliver the package and return to her family.
Cleo makes a great heroine. Her determination, intelligence, and compassion keep her moving even after she encounters numerous challenges. What makes the book especially interesting is that Cleo spends most of the book fighting to get through the building and past the drones. I wouldn't have thought that a book with so few human interactions could be so compelling. But the drones prove to be formidable foes at worst and annoying obstacles at least. Except one small observation drone that sort of becomes her 'friend'. With so few human characters, the few that do show up are rather important. A surprising twist at the end changes the way Cleo sees the things she's experienced. Overall, I found this book a well-written, compelling story with interesting themes related to ethics, family and friends, and sacrifice.
Despite her parents' explanation that the delivery system doesn't make mistakes and that she should just forget about the package, Cleo can't let go of the idea that the person will die if she doesn't get her medicine. Cleo takes matters into her own hands and climbs out of her family's apartment through the tube. She takes a few supplies, the package, and her device through which she talks with her AI instructor, Mrs. VAIN. But Cleo finds herself facing enormous challenges trying to find the mysterious person not to mention avoiding all the different types of drones. After confronting a number of difficulties, Cleo finds herself outside of the building. This is shocking for someone who has never been outside. And discovering that there are people living outside is even more startling. And then there's the problem of getting back inside to deliver the package and return to her family.
Cleo makes a great heroine. Her determination, intelligence, and compassion keep her moving even after she encounters numerous challenges. What makes the book especially interesting is that Cleo spends most of the book fighting to get through the building and past the drones. I wouldn't have thought that a book with so few human interactions could be so compelling. But the drones prove to be formidable foes at worst and annoying obstacles at least. Except one small observation drone that sort of becomes her 'friend'. With so few human characters, the few that do show up are rather important. A surprising twist at the end changes the way Cleo sees the things she's experienced. Overall, I found this book a well-written, compelling story with interesting themes related to ethics, family and friends, and sacrifice.
December 25, 2020
This is not a bad book. In fact, if I were an eight-year-old child reviewing this story, I’d probably give it 5 stars. Cleo Porter is charming, inventive, and easy to identify with. The lack of skin color descriptions will allow kids of any race to picture her looking more like them even though she was probably intended to be seen as white. The story is engaging. And if I were a child, the twist ending might have actually surprised me. As an adult, however, I knew exactly what was happening from the moment the medication was delivered. However, despite knowing where the book was headed, I still enjoyed the ride.
June 2, 2021
Cleo Porter and the Body Electric was both thrilling and extremely frustrating. It is another book that, to me, felt like a small part of a much larger story, and I'm kind of desperate for the rest of it. I have so many questions about the greater world that Cleo lives in. I wish we could get another one that delves into the complicated and challenging work of humanity reoccupying the world again. I found myself thinking a lot of WALL-E while reading this!
Also, I loved the title when I added this book to my list, but I love it even more now that I have read it.
Also, I loved the title when I added this book to my list, but I love it even more now that I have read it.
December 22, 2020
Weird and fabulous!! Written before the pandemic about a time in the future after a bad pandemic when everyone lives inside and never leaves their apartment. Cleo gets someone else’s medicine delivered to her apartment by mistake and decides to LEAVE the apartment to deliver it. Crazy things then happen. It’s an incredible journey with a cute drone (Yorick) and an AI teacher who is really kind (Ms. VAIN). Cleo is the real star, however. She’s fierce and determined and just amazing.
September 17, 2023
DNF 20%
A fifth of the way through the book and literally nothing has happened. The back and forth of what Cleo should do about the package is agonizingly slow and there wasn’t enough to make me want to slog past that. The concept is there, but it needed to get to the point way faster. I’m very disappointed especially because this is starting to feel like a reading slump coming on where well-liked books just aren’t holding my attention.
A fifth of the way through the book and literally nothing has happened. The back and forth of what Cleo should do about the package is agonizingly slow and there wasn’t enough to make me want to slog past that. The concept is there, but it needed to get to the point way faster. I’m very disappointed especially because this is starting to feel like a reading slump coming on where well-liked books just aren’t holding my attention.
December 24, 2024
Cleo's character was kinda interesting but seriously unrealistic, plus the plot felt a little anticlimatic. I can't say that i actually liked any of the characters either. The dystopian idea was really interesting tho. My only other con is that the title and cover are seriously misleading, I thought I was gonna read a cool sci-fi story with mutant bugs but it turns out they're drones
February 23, 2021
I cried reading the end/part of the acknowledgements and that's why you don't read a pandemic book during a pandemic!!
in all seriousness this was really good and definitely surprised me a bit near the end.
in all seriousness this was really good and definitely surprised me a bit near the end.
February 17, 2021
This was an amazing book. I loved it from beginning to end
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2022
Cute!
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