First published 1991
Barney lives in the Complex, an experimental clinic where he serves as the control subject among other teenage patients. At sixteen, he cannot recall any existence before these sterile walls. The other subjects are sick, but Barney knows he is different. His role sets him apart from the dying teenagers around him. As Barney navigates daily life in this medical facility, he begins to uncover disturbing truths about his own condition and purpose. The revelation he discovers about himself changes everything he believed about his identity and situation. This terrible secret propels him toward a desperate mission. Barney becomes determined to make the ultimate dream come true for himself and his fellow subjects. The Bumblebee, their symbol of impossible flight, must somehow take wing. His quest becomes a race against time and the constraints of their confined world.
Genres: science-fiction, medical, contemporary, adolescence
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Complex
Period: 20th-century
256 pages · Library Binding · Bt Bound
Content warnings: medical-trauma