What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Freakling
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. YA Fantasy 2000s book about a boy who lives in a world where everyone can perform telekinesis, but his powers are a bit more special. Spoilers ahead. [s]
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Noted, thank you, I will fix it right now.
This one seems like a match! It was published in 2012.Freakling by Lana Krumwiede
One of the hidden reviews (that contains SPOILERS) describes the underwater cave incident:
"He tries to do so a few days later when the family is at the beach. He pushes Taemon off a cliff and into the water, and doesn’t help him out. Taemon is swept into an underwater cave, and in order to survive he finds a way to separate the oxygen from water molecules so that he can breathe. "
That’s it! Thank you so much for the help, this one’s been bothering my sister and myself for way too long! I’ll finally get to read the second one after all these years haha
-\/Spoilers\/-
I first read this book sometime around 2015, and I believe it was fairly new at the time, possibly no more than five years old. The book is about a boy that lives in a world that later is shown to actually be part of normal Earth. The group of people that he belongs to is large and they all have telekinetic abilities. They were sent to another side of a mountain range to live separate from the rest of the people on Earth. I don't think that this was done forcefully. If I remember correctly, it was an agreement that the two sides- the telekinetic and those that couldn't use telekinesis - came to since the others were feeling threatened by their abilities.
The book opens with some sorta introduction about how- all his life- this boy had doors open for him without having to lift a finger, and apples splitting into slices without the need of a knife. We find that our main character, a boy in his teen years, has recently lost his telekinetic abilities. There's a possibility that he never had them in the first place, but I'm pretty sure the not having them bit was a new development. Once again, if I remember correctly, he describes that he lost them on a trip with his family to the beach. He was in a sea cave that his brother forced him into, I believe intentionally so that he would drown. While in there he's panicking, understandably, about dying. He focusses and notices that he can use his telekinesis to draw the oxygen in the water to his lungs, which he sees in his mind for the first time. He describes them as "spongy", I believe. You later find out that that is very much something that he is not supposed to be able to do (more on that soon). After being rescued he can no longer use his abilities when he gets home, which he and everyone else attributes to the trauma- that he would just need some time to calm down and he'd be fine.
The school year starts up and things still aren't normal. His teacher makes an assignment where they all have to make their own locks for their lockers. This is where the not being able to see inside of things comes in. It's important that they all make their own locks so they know how they work and don't know how anyone else's work. No one is able to see inside of things or pick different parts of molecules, of all things, apart either. This is also the reason that the boy did not know what to call his lungs. Information about the human body is highly classified in their world, it's information only given to medical professionals, trusted people. If you know how the human body works there's not much stopping you from stopping someone's heart other than your own morals. Anyhow- back to the lock. He makes his lock with the help of his mom, since his family are the only ones that know he hasn't regained his abilities. He makes it into some sorta remote mechanism where he can unlock it with a separate device so it looks like he's able to do it on his own.
Fast forward a few days and his brother tries to kill him again or somethin'. The dude's got a few loose screws to say the least and he's older than our main character so it's not too hard for him to overpower him. He sets him off in some contraption, that might of been some kind of car? -Sets him off out of control and main character teen boy taps into his new skill again, is able to look inside the car to work over all it's parts and figure out how to drive it. He's able to stop it, good stuff.
The next part's muddled but something happens and he's sent to live in this secluded community of people that everyone believes lives there because they can't use telekinesis. So boy™ gets there and low-and-behold that story's a cover up. Yes there are people that can't us telekinesis there but really they're there because they have a different telekinetic ability than everyone else. There are people that can do the same look inside thing as the boy, there's a lady that can see the future or something like that, all that sorta fun stuff going on. There the boy gets his first look at normal contraptions like scooters and toy boats, his first read of science books since they are heavily banned from those that can use telekinesis, even more of that fun stuff going on. I think he even comes across a family member of his that was sent there?
He befriends this one girl and they do something together that overthrows or frees something or someone? I really don't remember what happened there but I think he regains his telekinesis through that time and has to gain control of an elevator or something. The book ends with them planning to go to the rest of the normal world, over the mountains. There was a second book that I never read though I wanted to. But yeah, apologies if that was confusing and thank you very much for any help that may be given!