Dodger's parents, her classmates in school, other graduate students at Berkeley, and even Dodger herself say over and over again how she is unable to make friends.

The stereotype that mathematical ability goes along with social inability is not only stated once, but repeatedly through the book. but we never learn what the Monroe Equation is or how she solved it, only that she wrote her answer with colored pens. We're told that at age 9 she solved the 'Monroe Equation', earning her at $10,000 prize. But, the absence of any mathematical detail makes it difficult to appreciate. At one point, she is able to escape after being tied up with ropes by doing some sort of calculation, which is impressive I suppose. And, Dodger is similarly supposed to be supernaturally amazing at math. There are people who are amazing with words, but I would not know that Roger was if I hadn't been told.

We are told that Roger is not just good but amazing with words, but most of the time his dialogue seems quite ordinary, and at other times he sounds like a talking thesaurus. Unfortunately, the author was not really able to capture the supposed power that Roger and Dodger had in their respective fields. The plot and the way the twins interact in this book is really cool. As they soon learn, Roger and Dodger had been created by a society of alchemists with an evil goal. Their similarities were no coincidence or accident. Then, they meet up again as graduate students at UC Berkeley, and that's when the adventure really begins. Suspiciously, they were also born on the same day and had the same strange eyes (although Roger was colorblind while Dodger had problems with depth perception.) But, as they grew older, adults convinced each of them that the other had never actually existed. When they were young, Roger (who lives in Cambridge MA and loves words) and Dodger (who lives in Palo Alto and loves math) had a psychic link that allowed them to see through each other's eyes, and to help each other with their homework. (click on names to see more mathematical fiction A list compiled by Alex Kasman ( College of Charleston)

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire