The Confession of Hemingway Jones

by Kathleen Hannon

Overview

A 2024 IPPY Award Bronze Medal Winner

“. . . pulse-pounding and heart-breaking.” —Melinda Metz, author of the Roswell High series, writer for Roswell

“An action-packed, suspenseful romp through life and death . . .” —Kirkus Reviews

It’s time to raise the dead.

Moments after a devastating car accident kills his father, 17-year-old Hemingway Jones takes his father’s body to Lifebank, the cryogenic preservation research center where he interns. Hijacking the lab in a desperate attempt to reverse the natural order, Hemingway holds police and medics at bay as he works to revive his father. As dawn breaks, the heart monitor beeps, and his father slowly creeps back to life.

Days later, Hemingway arrives at the hospital to learn that his father’s skin has turned ashen gray, he can’t exist in temperatures above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and hydrogen sulfide has become his only source of food. Facing arrest for his reckless actions, Hemingway is offered a proposal by the billionaire owner of the lab: recreate the experiment he swore he’d never do again, or go to prison, leaving his father to die a second time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780744302585
Publisher:	CamCat Publishing
Publication date:	09/24/2024
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Having worked as a Hollywood development executive for many years, Kathleen Hannon's career got turned upside down by the Writer's Strike of 2007. With nothing to edit, she turned her desk from west to north, and her editing skills to writing. Her Middle-Grade novel “Bye for Now" was published by Egmont in late 2011. After a couple screenplays for Hollywood, she has returned to books. "The Confession of Hemingway Jones" is her first YA novel. Hannon lives in Charlotte, N.C., and is the single mom of two daughters.

Editorial Reviews

"The Confession of Hemingway Jones grabs you on page one and never lets go, with a story that is equally pulse-pounding and heart-breaking.” —Melinda Metz, author of the Roswell High series, writer for Roswell

From the Publisher

10/02/2023

Hannon explores themes of guilt and grief against the backdrop of an eerie cryogenic laboratory in this Frankenstein-leaning sci-fi adventure. Seventeen-year-old Hemingway Jones has once again been caught skipping his prestigious internship at Lifebank, a cryogenics lab in North Carolina for which he carts corpses to eccentric scientists performing intricate experiments. But the internship doesn’t matter to Hem, who’s only doing it because his father is forcing him to. When he gets into a car accident while driving stoned, resulting in his father’s death, Hem is desperate to save him. He smuggles his father’s body into Lifebank and begins replicating the scientists’ work to bring him back to life. Eventually, he’s able to revive his father—though the being before him has ashen gray skin, can’t survive in temperatures above 55 °F, must subsist on hydrogen sulfide, and has somehow developed supernatural powers, including telekinesis. Hem’s acerbic personality and tendency to mock the intersectionally diverse supporting cast bogs down a strong start. Intriguing conversations surrounding morality and ethics, offered alongside viscerally described scenes of gory scientific experimentation, add depth to this uneven debut. Ages 13–up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-06-08
A Frankenstein-style plot narrated by a teenage genius with an attitude.

Seventeen-year-old snarky genius Hemingway Jones may be a rebel, but after being pushed by his father, he lands an internship at Lifebank, a well-funded cryogenic lab in North Carolina. Hem would rather be smoking pot; instead, he’s wheeling around dead bodies for some truly sketchy scientific studies on reanimation. After his father dies in a car accident caused by Hem’s driving while stoned, a desperate Hem—whose mom died two years ago—reanimates him. Under scrutiny from the police, Hem is coerced into working for Lifebank. He enters their vortex of research horror, reluctantly participating in gory and tortuous medical exploitation. Hem has a knack for inspiring loyalty from others while simultaneously betraying their trust. The novel pulls no punches while establishing his sarcastic voice and manipulative personality; Hem often treats others in unethical ways while still believing in his own ethical superiority. Teens may relate to his defiant approach to authority, though they may also feel uncomfortable about the inappropriate sexual innuendo between him and adult women, his fatphobic remarks, some stereotypical cuing of Black characters, and other content that is not unpacked. The accessible writing and fast pace have reader appeal, however. Main characters read white; the town is racially and socioeconomically divided.

An action-packed, suspenseful romp through life and death featuring some problematic representation. (Speculative fiction. 15-18)

Kirkus Reviews