May 3, 2021
The weight of knowing when death will arrive presses heavily on the characters of this enjoyable slipstream thriller from YA author Kennedy (The Order of Odd-Fish). The burned-out, unnamed narrator works for a company that delivers perfect predictions of when its clients will die, using an algorithm that measures “thanatons.” He violates the company’s cardinal rule when he uses the algorithm on himself—and discovers that, according to the calculations, he’s already dead. The revelation thrusts him into a surreal quest to reconnect with the important people in his life, taking him through memories of his early days at physics camp, his university years and first love, and the subsequent, failed marriage he used to try to forget her. Kennedy ties the very personal quirks of his main character to the eccentricities of the universe, incorporating the lost city of Cahokia and the Crab Nebula supernova of 1054 into the mystery of the algorithm’s error. Readers with a taste for the synchronicity of the cosmic with the commonplace are sure to be entertained. Agent: John Cusick, Folio Literary.
August 20, 2021
Here, Kennedy explores a common desire: to know exactly when you will die. The narrator is quite skilled in using the algorithm to determine this, and soon he discovers his own death date--except that he was supposed to die in a car crash after a disastrous client meeting, but he's clearly still alive. He begins a journey to visit his ex-girlfriend, convinced that only she has the answers. Told alternately in flashbacks from the narrator's childhood physics camp, his early days with the company and his life with his ex, and the present day, Dare To Know will keep readers on the edge of their seats wanting to find out the next piece of the puzzle. The second half of the book, particularly the ending, switches from science fiction to a dreamlike fantasy that can be hard to follow, and the ambiguous ending may be frustrating as it's not entirely clear what's happened. Despite this, Dare To Know will prompt the reader to consider the philosophical implications of life and death itself.
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