Book Review: Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air
I started this series during the Great Hiatus (like so many others) and didn’t go back to re-read book one before reading this one, so this one will have to standalone for now until I can circle back. Good news is that these are fun books, so I’ll probably get to it eventually.
Teagan’s life is going a little better these days. Work is going well, and maybe she’ll even be able to convince the boss to let her taking cooking classes! Until, that is, a young boy shows up in California, with the power to move the earth - and cause earthquakes. Suddenly, Teagan and her friends are in the fight of their lives and the stakes have never been higher. If they fail to stop the young boy in question, he’ll trigger a catastrophic earthquake that could shatter the West Coast permanently.
For me, personally, I enjoyed this book even more than the first one. It benefits massively from Teagan not being under direct suspicion, which is a trope I don’t particularly care for, and it gives her the space she needs to process the fallout of the previous book. Ford allows Teagan to be an ass more than once here, usually in relation to her trauma, but he doesn’t allow her to get away with it either. The other characters repeatedly call her out on her shit.
In fact, he uses her crush, Nic, to demonstrate the dilemma of her situation. Given the scope and power of her abilities, there is so much good Teagan could do in the world, and Nic really wants her to make use of that, almost like a superhero. But Teagan, with good reason, is leery of showing the world what she can do. She’s been experimented on enough, and she doesn’t want to be hunted. So at what point do you find a balance? Where can you do the most good without exposing yourself to harm? It’s something Teagan struggles with repeatedly throughout the book.
Unlike the last book, where the true villain was obscured, our villain for this book is positioned up front as a POV character: Matthew, a young boy who seems to have had an upbringing not dissimilar to Teagan’s, developing psychokinetic powers in a laboratory setting. Unlike Teagan, though, Matthew is a child with sociopathic tendencies. He lies, manipulates, causes pain, and seems to entirely lack a conscience. He keeps his mother only because he needs her, because a four-year-old can’t navigate the world alone.
And he makes one heck of a villain because…what do you do with a child? Everyone will balk at the idea of killing or imprisoning a kid, and everyone wants to believe he can be taught to be better. It consistently makes the other characters underestimate Matthew’s capacity for cruelty, his lack of care for anyone other than himself and (to the extent that he needs her) his mother. No one in their right mind would suspect a child of setting off earthquakes that reduce California to the worst disaster zone imaginable — and yet, that’s precisely what he does, for no reason other than sheer enjoyment of his own power.
The rest of the cast deepens their dynamic around this central conflict. Africa is now a part of the China Shop team, replacing the member lost in the previous novel. Teagan’s relationships with the rest of the team deepen, even with Annie, who always gave her a hard time in the previous novel. They make a wonderful supporting group, allowing Ford to craft interesting dynamics or showcase various ways the crisis impacts people.
The setting is as rich as ever, shifting gears from one great Californian fear (fires) to another (earthquakes) and continuing to build on Teagan’s LA. There is plenty of background info starting to come out now too, about Moira Tanner and her organization, and about other black facilities around the US that are continuing the research of Teagan’s parents. In fact, the very end of this book is one great bombshell in that regard, revealing something I suspected the whole way through and which will undoubtedly crush Teagan in the next book. There are also big ramifications for Teagan’s own powers here; she is growing stronger, no bones about it, and it’s making people nervous.
And like The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind, this book is a high-paced, zipping romp. It’s the kind of book you read in a single sitting, if you’ve got the time, or at least very quickly, because the tightness of the plot will keep you coming back for more. Are there some convenient coincidences? Sure. Is the action occasionally improbable? Yeah, at times. But it’s just so much dang fun. It starts with a botched heist, spirals into a massive earthquake, and morphs into a manhunt (kidhunt?) that will keep you turning pages right up to the end.
I didn’t start out with a lot of high expectations for this series, since it’s on the edge of what I usually enjoy. But Ford is so good at crafting these novels that it’s hard not to get caught up in them. I’m eagerly awaiting book three, Eye of the Sh*tstorm.
Grade: 4.5/5 stars
Memorable Quote:
“It’s not long before we come across our first collapsed skyscraper.
It’s crashed down onto Figueroa, utterly wrecking the buildings around it. Despite the rain, the air is choked with dust - we’re probably a shit-ton of toxic chemicals [sic]. And there must be people buried under the rubble, too. That thought is enough to force a long, slow breath out of my lungs, a breath that really wants to be a scream of anger.
This kid. This fucking kid.”
