EPITAPH ROAD

Patneaude, David  Mar 2010. 272 p. Egmont, hardcover,  $16.99. (9781606840559).  

Adults don’t trust him, his potential is limited, and girls brush up close to get a whiff of his smell—yes, Kellen is a boy, and that’s a rare thing. It’s 2097, 30 years after a supervirus known as Elisha’s Bear wiped out 97 percent of the planet’s males. The world as run by women is largely free of the aggression that brought earth to the brink, and insemination protocols keep males to a safe 5 percent of the population. Kellen has resigned himself to his humble future when he overhears his mother, a powerful member of the Population Apportionment Council, speaking of a new outbreak heading toward a community of “throwbacks” (loner men) that includes Kellen’s father. With two female friends, Kellen escapes to warn his dad and in the process uncovers the shocking secrets behind Elisha’s Bear. Patneaude’s teen characters, intelligent and reasonable, question the wisdom of one group ever deciding the fate of another. Though the story becomes too reliant upon action sequences, a moving sense of loss blankets everything.