I read “The Healing Stone” by John Newton, and it is excellent.

I have confession to rant: I hate “Young Adult” fiction. More generally, I dislike any fiction that centers on young people. I hated it when I was a young person. I once read of a YA author asked how YA fiction is made, who responded that you just write the same story you would write otherwise, but make the protagonists young. This is a terrible idea, and it’s what makes YA fiction terrible: Young people are dumb and uninteresting. I knew they were dumb and uninteresting even when I was one, and I certainly didn’t enjoy stories about their dumb mistakes and mindless angst. And if you think about it, that writer’s advice is the worst option for what young people should be reading. They’re possibly getting subject matter (plots) not suitable for their level of development (you know what I’m talking about), but the characters are young people like them, giving them no model for their future development. All this method accomplishes is to reinforce and normalize the idea of young people dealing poorly with material they should not be dealing with at all, certainly not as leaders. And yes, you can have the older mentor character, but he doesn’t accomplish as much as you want. The reader doesn’t have insight into his thinking, doesn’t see the sophistication of his reasoning or how he became what he is. “But the YA story tells how a young person grows to become that older mentor.” No, it doesn’t. That skips a step. Young people, if they’re lucky, become adults. You have to first be an adult to even undertake the kind of learning and trials that forge a wise elder.

It would be much better, then, if authors did the opposite of what that writer said: make the protagonists adults, but make the story one suitable for young people, giving them models for both the challenges they face in the present and the kind of people they want to be in the future. Young people should read stories about adults, to get a window into adult thinking, to see adults dealing with problems adultly and adults learning from the elderly. (And adults should read stories about older and wiser adults and elders.)

But I know no one will believe me, and they’ll insist on reading stories about uninteresting young people doing things stupidly.

If you’re going to read one of those, read “The Healing Stone” by John Newton. Francisco, our hero, is a young man, and because he is a young man, he is not very interesting to me and I did not like him. And this is why, despite early portions of the story being rich with action, I felt like the novel started slow. I just didn’t care much about Francisco. But you’ll probably find him very endearing. He’s certainly more relatable, more thoughtful, and less stupid than the protagonists of YA series which have sold millions. It’s probably only by my deficiency in empathy for young people that I didn’t get hooked until my Kindle Reader said “17%.”

That’s when the adults show up, and, oh my. This is fun sci-fi. Nor can I complain about a slow start. I love a slow start. I prefer a story that sets a mood before it springs things on you. This one definitely does that. Settles you into a historical realist YA novel with just a single low-fantasy element, and convinces you that’s what it’s going to be for the duration, before coming at you with the big genre left hook. I love that. It’s wonderful.

And Francisco redeems himself from the YA doldrums in the end, satisfactorily. Good job, Francisco. Good job, Mr. Newton.

Newton is a professional writer. By that, I mean he writes proper, professional novel prose. All the best stories these days are in the indie world, since the publishing houses foreclosed on anything not conforming to leftist ideology. But this means the best novelists no longer have access to professional editors, and the reader has to wade through amateur craftsmanship to get good stories. You know the kind of thing I’m talking about, decent storytellers with interesting ideas, but ones who write like they grew up on social media and text messages. Their writing is marked by colloquialisms of casual speech and internet speech, if not outright errors. “Once the stone healed him to where he could stand…” vs “Once the stone had healed him such that he could stand…” or “Once the stone had done its work, at least enough that he could make his feet…” Mr. Newton gives us the latter, proper professional English composition—lean and suitably artful, not excessive or flowery, but good and correct . I could in good conscience give this novel to a youngster knowing it will enhance, rather than degrade, said youngster’s command of English. You get good at English (and any language) by reading. A lot. Mr. Newton clearly grew up reading, and has contributed a volume or two to the body of entertaining fiction for others to grow up reading. It is very refreshing to be able to get a story with both good content and good polish.

As to the story itself, it is on target for adults and young people. The subject matter is appropriate, handling adult situations delicately without shying from the realities of its setting. And the sci-fi background is awesome, creative and intriguing. I want more of that, for sure.

As with every novel published these days, it seems, this is one of a series. However, Newton does us the favor of actually resolving this episode, complete with a satisfying denouement and an explicit hook for the sequel, rather than just dumping us off without an ending. Episodic content done right.

Overall a very good novel. If you’re like me and hate children, give it until 18% to get its claws in you.

I have not been able to find John Newton on X, but you can find his work on Amazon, and you can find him on YouTube and via his friend @TweetYBIC