Official: Adrian McKinty, Deviant

It’s hardly a week since I mentioned Adrian McKinty and his latest offering FALLING GLASS on these pages, so I hope you’ll forgive me for dredging up his name again so soon. The reason why is his next offering, DEVIANT, which at first, given the brutal honesty of the title, I presumed would be a warts-‘n’-all autobiography. But stay! DEVIANT is in fact McKinty’s latest young adult title, with the blurb elves wibbling thusly:

Danny Lopez is new in town. He made a mistake back home in Las Vegas, and now he has landed at an experimental school in Colorado for “tough cases.” At the Cobalt Charter School, everything is scripted—what the teachers say, what the students reply—and no other speaking is allowed. This super-controlled environment gives kids a second chance to make something of themselves. But with few freedoms, the students become sitting ducks for a killer determined to “clean up” Colorado Springs.

  Sounds like a belter, with McKinty himself describing it as ‘young adult noir (if such a genre exists’). Well, it does now; and it’s a rare young adult who doesn’t, in their blissful ignorance, consider themselves deviant in some shape or fashion. I certainly did. Anyway, we’ll leave it up to CAP’s semi-resident YA expert, aka Ms Witch, to tell us if it’s any good or not, but I’m certainly looking forward to delving into its deviance. Cracking cover, too.
  I like the theory, by the way. Snag ’em young, get ’em hooked on the spiritual crack of noir-styled misery and predestination, and you’re set for life. As for the kids, well, tough. I blame the parents. Do you know what your child is reading right now?