The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

Oppel, K., & Klassen, J. (2015). The nest. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

This thrilling story details Steven, a troubled adolescent teen who struggles with anxiety, stress, OCD, and making friends. He and his family are also dealt a difficult life situation with the birth of his younger brother, Theo. Theo battles multiple congenital defects. Steven is plagued at night with nightmares about a dark shadowy figure. One day while outside, Steven is stung by a unique looking wasp. He is taken to the emergency room which determines he is allergic to wasps and given an Epipen. Starting that night, while asleep, he is engulfed with multiple dreams of an angel-like figure, which turns out to be a wasp. He is drawn to the wasp creature, which is named Queen Wasp, as she brings him a level of comfort in his difficult time. The wasp also helps calm his mostly nightmarish dreams. Throughout multiple nights, Queen Wasp explains that his brother is not doing well and that she has a way to repair and fix him. Reluctantly, Steven accepts her help. However, he rethinks his offer and quickly turns her down. The Queen Wasp doesn’t take no for an answer. Steven is found in a battle of life and death as he must save his younger brother from the Queen Wasp and her army of workers. The Queen Wasp wants to replace Steven’s brother with a replica baby, and feeds his brother to the worker wasps. He miraculously saves his brother who is only stung twice. Unfortunately, Steven is stung multiple times and is pronounced dead, but thankfully makes a full recovery. This book illustrates black and white pictures that have very high amounts of contrasts and shading, showing depth with each picture. The story describes and reflects on Steven’s past emotional state. The feeling of loneliness and despair are brought to the front of the readers mind as they try to navigate and dissect the plot of the book. It quickly, but meticulously evolves, much like the forming of a wasp nest. The author presents foreshadowing with the introduction of the knife guy, a mysterious, yet intriguing character. I would recommend The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin. This book also has tragedy and imagination in it.