Polymorph - Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld is experiencing something of a career resurrection lately, thanks to his wildly popular young adult novels. His first career, as a writer of character-driven science fiction for grownups is largely forgotten. Before Uglies, Midnighters, Peeps and So Yesterday Westerfeld turned out some very fine novels. The ideas and themes that make his young adult novels so engaging are vividly on display in Polymorph, Westerfeld's debut novel.

Polymorph's protagonist, who sometimes calls herself Lee, is capable of shifting her structure to take on any appearance. Her talent, and her fear of being exposed as a freak, has enabled Lee to live a life of public anonymity, slinking through life on the path of least resistance and leaving the least impression. Her solitary life is disturbed when she meets another polymorph. The two are first lovers, then enemies, as they are unable to reconcile their own ambitions. In their game of cat-and-mouse, Lee struggles not to become the mouse.

The novel works many of the same themes and ideas that Westerfeld explores in his other novel, especially the relationship between appearance and identity that shows up in the Uglies books. Westerfeld creates a parallel examination of this idea through Lee's one friend, Freddie, who has a job working as an online actor, taking on personas to stimulate conversation between a chat service's paying customers. Westerfeld also intelligently examines the need for social belonging and intimacy. Lee takes on many lovers, but her talent allows her to disappear and avoid any emotional connection. The explicitness of her sexual encounters (which will be shocking to readers familiar only with Westerfeld's youth-oriented books) demonstrates the evolution of intimacy, trust, and control in Lee's character through the book.

The action in Polymorph moves along swiftly, as Westerfeld wisely opts to keep the plot fairly simple. Each character and scene in the book is memorable. There are many more issues Westerfeld could have addressed, but the depiction of Lee's journey of self-discovery is economical and effective, and the action is exciting. Westerfeld only makes a misstep in the novel's denouement, where a brief passage suggests that the ending is not quite what it seems. Whether Westerfeld intended to leave the story open for a sequel, or he succumbed to the temptation to put an unnecessary and confounding twist in his narrative, it sours what is otherwise a very entertaining novel.