Dark Parts of the Universe by Samuel Miller (review)

Reviewed by: Dark Parts of the Universe by Samuel Miller Wesley Jacques Miller, Samuel Dark Parts of the Universe. Tegan/HarperCollins, 2024 432p Trade ed. ISBN 9780063160484 19. 99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063160507 10. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 8–12 In small town Calico Springs, Missouri, fifteen-year-old William Eckles lives with his overprotective older brother, who just graduated high school without much to do next, and their mother, who recently separated from their shiftless and untrustworthy father. Their majority white town and all its citizens are notoriously down on their luck. However, narrator Willie, his big bro, a group of old friends, and Sarai, a new girl from Lawton (the similarly downtrodden and mostly Black town across the river), are determined to make the most of the summer when they discover Manifest Atlas, a smartphone app that seems both trendy and supernatural. The app simply asks "WHAT'S YOUR INTENTION" before leading users on GPS-driven outings of discovery, and it quickly gains popularity amongst curious teens throughout Missouri while local adults are preoccupied with the tensions of a potential Calico Springs-Lawton merger. When Manifest Atlas leads Willie and co. to the dead body of Sarai's stepfather, the most adamant proponent of the towns' interracial integration, both the popularity of the app and its origins become pressing concerns. While narrative focus remains on the app and a potential murder mystery, the unsatisfyingly slow pace of recognizing racism past and present may deflate some of the suspense for readers already aware of how America's lines of inequity don't need to be magical or digital to be haunting. The app is eventually revealed to be just a data-stealing social experiment, and Willie's dad's unsurprising involvement in the violent, systemic oppression of the Black residents of Lawton proves to be largely unrelated. The novel aims its ending ambitiously toward a small town's racial reckoning but may simply miss the mark. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois