I read more YA books now than when I was actually a YA. I like to see what contemporary teens are up to in the fictional world. It turns out, their stakes are bigger than the typical teen problems I used to read about. Now, they spend their summers on archaeological digs, lead anti-fracking protests, and tap into multiple dimensions in order to save the state of our environmentally decaying world. That’s the premise of Tracy Richardson’s novel, Catalyst, which I review below.
Plot summary
High schooler Marcie Horton is spending her summer on an archaeological dig in Indiana along with her mom and brother, Eric. They’re excavating the remnants of an ancient indigenous community.
There she meets a mysterious couple named Lorraine and Zeke. Right away, Marcie discovers that she can read their thoughts. Though she is already familiar with paranormal experiences, Marcie is surprised when the two reveal that their abilities go far beyond telepathy. They want to show her and her team how they too can use these abilities to save the earth from irreparable environmental damage.
Standing in their way is a big energy company that wants to bring fracking to her grandparents’ farm and the neighboring farms in their community. Marcie’s parents organize meetings to protest fracking, arguing its detrimental effects on the land and the potential health hazards it can create.
One person who supports the fracking, however, is Leo. He’s a college guy on Marcie’s dig team whose father sides with the energy company. Her attraction to Leo is shattered by his beliefs. Marcie wonders if she can continue to like, or even trust, Leo because of his differing viewpoints. This leads to a need to decide between saving her relationship with him or saving the world.
Supernatural science
Catalyst blends science and the supernatural into a YA story with a larger message than your typical summer YA romance. Marcie comes from a family of activists. So, she has deeply ingrained views on preservation between her environmentalist father and archaeologist mother.
However, her views aren’t strictly science-based. Catalyst is book two in the series. The first featured Marcie’s brother, Eric, discovering that he has supernatural abilities. Marcie, too, has recently discovered her ability to connect with the dead. As she works at the site, she sees visions of the ancient civilization that had lived there before.
These abilities draw Lorraine and Zeke to the Horton siblings. They help them to develop these abilities by tapping into the Universal Energy Field. There, they learn about the various dimensions and how they can prevent the one they live in from being destroyed by greed and pollution.
It was refreshing to see science and the supernatural working hand-in-hand in a non-traditional science fiction story. Factor in a love interest who essentially sides with the bad guys, and you have a very relevant conflict about what to do when someone you care about holds strong opinions that differ from your own.
Leo comes from a family who believes that fracking is both safe and profitable. This conflicts not only with Marcie’s strong stance against it but also to many others on the dig who agree. He can’t help but speak up in opposition to the group based on an upbringing with beliefs as strong as the Horton’s. As a result, their opposing viewpoints are too strong to even consider a truce to agree to disagree.
Setting
The archaeological dig setting was one of the most appealing aspects of Catalyst. There is a summer camp vibe to the story’s location, only more sophisticated. There are many of the same activities: hiking, swimming, and kitchen duty. The difference is that these activities are scheduled around long days of digging, sampling dirt, and excavating small artifacts.
Archaeology is a fascinating job that ties in well with this story. I was hoping for more details on the experience of excavating an ancient site. However, this aspect of the book took a back seat to the more supernatural experiences.
I was also hoping that Marcie’s already-established abilities would also play a bigger role in the story given their location. While her ability to see into the past is touched on, I was hoping for more direct ghostly interactions with the members of the civilization. But aside from finding the otherworldly catalyst at the site, the dig itself is basically just the place where Marcie meets the new characters.
The characters
The heroes of our story are likable and well-intentioned. They easily balance their basic teenage motivations with their larger, save-the-Earth missions, both practical and supernatural.
I would have liked to have seen more personality from the main characters. They tend to come off a bit stagnant at times. This is especially true when they are learning about the Universal Energy Field and how to harness their abilities to their full potential. Marcie seems to shrug off the more exciting moments throughout the book. This includes her first kiss with Leo and her first time using telekinesis.
In fact, the only time she gets truly fired up is when she argues environmental politics with the representative of the big energy company. You can tell that this is a topic that the author herself takes very seriously. It’s also one that I learned a lot about throughout the course of this book. The carefully weaved in facts about fracking gave me the knowledge to be able to support the heroes in their quest to stop it.
Side plots
Between the dig, the fight against fracking, the budding but conflicted relationship between Marcie and Leo, and the arrival of Lorraine and Zeke and the abilities and warning they bring, there is a lot of ground to cover in such as short book. It’s the tangible plotlines that kept my attention throughout the book, rather than the supernatural ones, which often went over my head in explaining multi-dimensions and accessing energy fields.
That may not be the case for all readers, though. Some may come onboard for the politically star-crossed love story. Others may be in it for the mysticism. Whatever the case, this is not your breezy YA read but rather one for deep thinkers, environmentalists, and those with an interest in extraordinary scientific theories.
Buy it!
Buy a copy of Catalyst here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission from any sales.
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interesting topic. it’s a universal question of whether a relationship is salvable despite polar opposite worldviews. i’m curious how mind reading can stop fracking.
We love that the setting is an archaeological dig!