Extra Life

by Derek Nikitas

Overview

Russ has never been your typical teen. After being expelled, Russ has started to get his life back on track. He’s a pop culture junkie, and living in a town where the popular teen soap “Cape Twilight” is filmed, how could he not be? So when Russ decides to make his own short film, he recruits the (emotionally unhinged) star of “Cape Twilight” and his own motley crew to help out. Seems like a great idea...until the plan blows up in Russ’s face.

Just when everything seems to be falling apart, Russ receives a message on his cell phone — from himself. Recorded in the future, ‘future Russ’ informes him that the day can be fixed if he’s willing to use an app to leap twelve hours into the past. Russ is happy to oblige, figuring the day can’t get any worse. But he couldn’t be more wrong. Because as soon as Russ tampers with time and space, he introduces dangerous glitches he can’t control, including alternate of himself. And suddenly Russ’s sanity and the lives of everyone he cares about are at risk if he can’t find a way to regain control of his own life— past, present and future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940610535
Publisher:	Polis Books
Publication date:	10/13/2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Derek Nikitas is the author of the novel Pyres, Minotaur Books, nominated for an Edgar Award in 2008. His second novel, The Long Division, was a Washington Post Best Book of 2009 selection. His short stories have been published in such journals as the Ontario Review, Chelsea, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, New South, and The Pedestal Magazine. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a PhD in creative writing from Georgia State University. He is the director of the low-residency MFA in creative writing at Eastern Kentucky University, the Bluegrass Writers Studio, and is currently a visiting assistant professor in creative writing at the University of Rhode Island. He was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, and raised in Fairport, New York.

Visit him online at DerekNikitas.com or @DerekNikitas.

Editorial Reviews

09/28/2015
Mystery author Nikitas (The Long Division) makes his YA debut with a complex adventure in which a teen bends time and space with increasingly messy results. All Russ wants to do is put together a short film that will land him a coveted internship with a local movie studio. When Russ's day takes a bad turn, including his missing the film submission deadline and getting suspended, he leaps at the chance to fix it all, in the form of a mysterious smartphone app that sends him back in time 12 hours. After his attempt to fix matters only makes them worse, he travels back in time again. As each leap generates more copies of Russ existing in the same timeframe, he realizes that something sinister is occurring and that not every copy of him will make it out alive. Readers may need a flowchart to keep track of the multiple versions of characters involved, but this is a clever, fast-paced, and thought-provoking tale, if one that leans a little too heavily on tongue-in-cheek humor and pop-culture awareness. Ages 13–up. Agent: Yishai Seidman, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for EXTRA LIFE

“With EXTRA LIFE, Derek Nikitas gives us a weird-science thriller packed with inventive twists, dynamic action and characters we both care about and genuinely fear. Deeply satisfying.”
–Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of ROT & RUIN

"By turns clever, surreal, and poignant, Derek Nikitas has achieved a rare thing with EXTRA LIFE - a high concept thriller with both smarts and heart. An inventive, memorable young adult debut.”
—Gwenda Bond, author of LOIS LANE: FALLOUT

"A clever, fast-paced, and thought-provoking tale." —Publishers Weekly

"Escalating action and suspense will grip readers until the end. A fine first foray into YA lit by veteran thriller-author Nikitas." —Booklist

"Fast-paced, action-packed, and sometimes violent, this novel provides another variation on the time-tested time travel trope. A science fiction novel for die-hard fans of the genre." —School Library Journal

"Nikitas' first young-adult effort, proves a brisk read that ought to entertain all s-f fans, regardless of age."
—StarNews Media

Praise for Derek Nikitas

“Any subject Derek handles, channeled through the lens of his unique sensibility, is likely to be of unusual worth and interest.” —Joyce Carol Oates

“Here is a book to scorch the heart and freeze the blood. Here is a story that leaves the reader gasping in shock and sadness, dry-mouthed and damp-eyed, dragging in air as the final chapters detonate. Here, in abundance, is live-wire language pumping beauty, desire and violence like electric currents; here are characters so exquisitely textured, the pages nearly shudder with their breath.”
—The Washington Post on The Long Division

“Nikitas' stellar first novel isn't just one of the best genre debuts of the year, it's one of the best releases - period.” —Chicago Tribune on Pyres

“A harrowing debut novel in which a girl who witnesses the brutal murder of her father learns the worst is yet to come... The prose is admirable, the mood pure Ingmar Bergman.”
—Kirkus Reviews on Pyres

“Beautifully realized characterizations power complex story lines that meet and connect this disparate group with the inevitability of Greek tragedy.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Long Division

“As he deftly weaves together three perilous storylines, we feel ourselves simultaneously moved, horrified and brokenhearted as the novel spirals towards its breathtaking conclusion. Nikitas finds beauty and pathos in the smallest of gestures, the largest of actions, the darkest of paths. Not to be missed."
—Megan Abbott on The Long Division

From the Publisher

11/01/2015
Gr 7 Up—Horace "Russ" Vale has a less than stellar school record. He tries to change his ways and finds an interest in filmmaking. With his friends, Russ sets out to make a film of his own. But when nothing goes according to plan, Russ has the opportunity to repeat the day through a mobile application on his cellular phone. The app warps him back in time, and the teen attempts to make things right for himself. Russ's ability to leap back in time creates parallel universes that pit him against himself as he works desperately to fix the future of his past actions. With each leap and the help of his friends and father, the teen protagonist must combat multiple doppelgangers roaming in the same space and finds that changing the past has exponential and sometime tragic consequences. The mechanics of the time travel are a bit complicated and get more so as each time warp unfolds. Fast-paced, action-packed, and sometimes violent, this novel provides another variation on the time-tested time travel trope. VERDICT A science fiction novel for die-hard fans of the genre.—Vivian Ho, Port Washington Public Library, NY

School Library Journal