Night Speed

by Chris Howard

Overview

An addictive new drug fuels superhuman strength and speed in this action-packed sci-fi thriller that will have fans of Scott Westerfeld and Marie Lu on the edge of their seats.

Only those young enough can survive tetra, a dangerous drug that creates a pulse-pounding rush of enormous strength and incredible speed. Seventeen-year-old Alana West has been trained to use tetra so she can pursue the young criminals who abuse its power—criminals like the one who nearly killed her kid brother.

On tetra, Alana is unstoppable—an explosive blur as she surges through New York City. But with the clock ticking down to her eighteenth birthday, Alana will soon be too old for the rush . . . when just one more dose will prove deadly.

Supported only by her steady handler, Tucker, Alana goes undercover, infiltrating an elite gang of breaknecks to stop their supply of the drug. But when Alana gets trapped on the wrong side of the law, she learns the breaknecks are not quite what they seem—especially Ethan, the boy who seems to see the truth inside her. With her dependency on tetra increasing, Alana must decide where her loyalties lie, before the rush ends. Forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062415363
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	13 Years

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2016
Howard (the Rootless trilogy) addresses the dangers of addiction in this adrenaline-packed near-future adventure, in which a 17-year-old girl infiltrates a gang of bank robbers in order to take them down. "Breaknecks" use a drug called tetra—which grants them short bursts of super speed, agility, and strength, but proves fatal to those over 18—to rampage through the streets of New York City, while the experimental Tetra Response Unit deploys runners to stop them. Alana West is one of the best active runners, but as her cutoff birthday approaches, she dreads forced retirement. Suspended after a run goes bad, Alana is secretly picked to go undercover to track down a renegade supplier. As she unexpectedly befriends her targets amid the exhilarating rush of freedom and the siren call of tetra, she struggles to stick to her mission. Howard creates a fast-paced story punctuated by highly cinematic action scenes and quieter emotional moments; the exploration of addiction isn't subtle, but this is still an engaging page-turner. Ages 13–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Tighten up that seatbelt, kids, because Chris Howard has his foot on the pedal and doesn’t let up, from page one to the end. This is superpower made real, made consequential, with characters you care about and a story that is pure adrenaline. An absolute must-read.

Michael Grant

Full of high-octane action and gut-punching emotion, Night Speed will make your heart race, break it into a million pieces, and then put it back together again.

Kass Morgan

Alana is a seventeen-year-old girl hooked on Tetra, a highly addictive drug that causes half-hour superhuman strength and speed bursts, and one heck of a hangover. This is not a problem because Alana is allowed to take Tetra; she is a runner for a semi-secret organization called the Tetra Response Unit. Her job is to chase down breaknecks—criminals who get their hands on Tetra and speed through Manhattan on unstoppable crime sprees. Action and darkness abound in Howard's novel, set in a New York that is not so much futuristic as it is alternate reality, for there are many present-day cultural touchstones to ground readers. Fans of ‘90s Schwarzenegger/Willis/Stallone/Cruise movies will find themselves in familiar territory. Alana has a history: her brother was a victim of a past Tetra addict's rush and she is bent on vengeance. As the hero with a dark streak, she is not entirely trusted by her bosses or many of her peers. After her latest pursuit, in fact, she is held responsible for a collateral death and made a political scapegoat. Of course, Alana decides to go it alone then, as a vigilante, and find the breakneck who almost killed her little brother. When she goes underground, though, she discovers some darker truths about the drug, the breaknecks, and the Tetra Response Unit. Reviewer: Jim Nicosia; Ages 12 to 18.

VOYA, August 2016 (Vol. 39, No. 3) - Jim Nicosia

04/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—In this futuristic version of New York City, Tetra is a popular drug that gives its users super speed. Many of those who take Tetra use it for nefarious purposes. Seventeen-year-old biracial Alana West is a member of the Tetra Response Unit, a group of teen law enforcement officers who set out to stop Tetra-related crimes. In order to catch the drug-enhanced criminals, Alana and her colleagues must take the drugs themselves in small doses. Once they turn 18, the drug starts to have destructive effects on the users, and the members of the Tetra Response Unit must step down from service. Alana ignores this edict and continues to use in order to seek out the people who put her brother in a wheelchair. Soon, the substance starts to affect her. Ultimately, she must choose between seeking vengeance and her own well-being. The story opens with an exciting chase sequence spanning multiple chapters. Those who enjoy thrillers will be pulled in at the beginning, but may be disappointed by the leisurely pace of the rest of the story. Yet when the action revs up, it goes full throttle. There are discussions of drug use as well as how users face the struggle of withdrawal. The hazy Tetra-induced visions are surreal and put readers in the mind of someone in the throes of addiction. VERDICT A chase-filled novel that deals with real life issues but is slightly plagued by erratic pacing.—Christopher Lassen, BookOps: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library

School Library Journal

2016-02-02
A world-weary teen faces the end of her superpowered-cop career. Adopting a fight-fire-with-fire strategy, New York City's experimental Tetra Response Unit employs teens as runners, offering them a steady supply of TTZ, or tetra, so they can be as fast and strong as the breaknecks—drug-fueled teen criminals—they are trying to catch. But the rush cannot last forever, for each runner must stop when puberty does, and time is running out for Alana West. The Feds are angling to shut down the team; she hasn't found the breakneck who landed her brother, Reuben, in a wheelchair; and she is almost 18. After a bust goes bad and Alana ends up a scapegoat, she accepts an undercover assignment to find the street dealer who supplies the breaknecks. Driven by revenge, rage, and a barely acknowledged addiction, Alana claims responsibility for her brother's accident but ignores her own TTZ-fueled trail of destruction. Aside from impulsive kissing episodes, Alana never feels particularly adolescent but is instead part wronged action hero—reminiscent of 1980s cop movies—and part junkie. Howard delivers gritty action sequences and an overabundance of vivid tetra-fueled visuals, but his dialogue is filled with cliché-riddled, slang-heavy, YOLO terms. Alana is biracial Latina, with a white father and Honduran mother, but there's little cultural detail supplied as grounding. Occasionally illogical and often trippy, a "high" adventure for young adrenaline junkies. (Adventure. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews