In the high-stakes, absorbing middle-grade series opener Westfallen, siblings Ann Brashares (The Here and Now; Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and Ben Brashares (The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection) pose the question, What if the Axis powers had won World War II? Their disturbing answer: Nazi America, where genetic testing determines people's residence, education, and work. But how did this happen? Timelines and points of view in this transfixing novel shift between two 12-year-olds, Henry (in 2023) and Alice (in 1944), who with their friends discover a "radio with a strange and incredible power": they can use it to talk to each other through time. At first, the 1944 kids ask about flying cars and jetpacks, but when they find out their beloved candy store will burn down, everyone agrees there's no harm in preventing the fire... right? One change leads to another, however, and in their attempts to manage fate, they cause a massive shift in history. The new friends then must use "old-fashioned gumshoeing" and ideas straight from the movies to try to realign the universe in a race against time.
This alternate history thriller is nerve-racking and thought-provoking. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader