The Experiment is a page-turner of a sci-fi novel written for a middle grade readership but with themes which will interest older teen readers and adults too.
The main protagonist is a sixth-grade boy named Nathan, who lives with his parents in New York, where the three of them hide a very big secret; they are aliens, part of a network of families who have been sent to assimilate with humans as part of an experiment run by their ‘Kast’ leader, Hester. On the surface, Nathan appears to be a typical 12-year-old, he and his best friend Victor share a love of comic books and movie nights on the sofa with Victor’s extended family. However, at home, Nathan’s food intake is measured to the gram by his mother, she is constantly uploading his metabolic data for Hester’s attention, and she totally freaks out when he runs out of the special pink toothpaste with which he has to clean his teeth five times per day! The twelve alien families scattered across the United States have monthly online meetings to check on each other’s progress, and when Izzy (with whom Nathan has formed a strong bond) as well as several others from the cohort disappear, coinciding with Nathan growing a stripy tail, it looks as if their time on planet earth might be drawing to an end. Nathan and his parents are summoned back to the spacecraft known as ‘the Wagon’ where they witness the disturbing treatment of families who have ‘failed’ the experiment. With the help of his sentient tail, which Nathan has named Tuck, he begins to uncover a huge web of deceit which leads to deep questions about all of his family’s deeply held beliefs.
The clever structure of this book, with six parts counting down to the lift off of the Wagon, and very short chapters, makes it a compelling read. The book is only 270 pages in length, so perfectly manageable as an independent read for children aged 9 years and above. In addition to the gripping and increasingly tense unravelling of the mystery of Hester, the Wagon and the Kast, there is also a touching story at its heart of the very genuine friendship between Nathan and Victor, and what it means to be human. I liked the insights into the nature of scientific experimentation, and the concept of the researcher becoming so obsessed with their work that acceptable standards and ethics were ignored. I think that this could be used as the basis for interesting discussions in an upper primary or lower secondary school classroom setting. I highly recommend The Experiment as an excellent addition to primary and secondary school library collections, and as a gift for young fans of the sci-fi genre.
Disclaimer: I am most grateful to publicist Jade at Andersen Press for sending me a copy of The Experiment. It was my decision to write a review and all opinions are my own.
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