Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Riddles of Epsilon, Christine Morton-Shaw

WOW. Did not disappoint.
Something dark has awoken on the remote island of Lume.
Jess is not pleased when her parents drag her off to live on the weird little island of Lume. But then she encounters an eerie presence in an abandoned cottage, and her anger turns to fear when it begins to lead her through a series of creepy riddles. As she slowly unravels the mysteries of Lume, she finds the writings of Sebastian, a boy who lived one hundred years ago and whose life contains unsettling reflections of her own. To her horror, the dangers he unearthed in 1894 now begin to threaten Jess and her family . . . and if Jess does not unlock the riddles in time, she may lose her mother forever.
So yeah, that's not really a big sparkly opening. But it's true. I got this from a book sale at the library and sometimes those used library books can be kind of . . . disappointing. Y'know? Well, this one was not. I still have a stack from the library left, but this was a great starter.

At first, you learn that Jess (hey, that's the name of the main character from the book I read before this!) is fourteen. Now, I haven't read a lot of books where the main character is younger than I am, I don't know why. It's just a thing that doesn't happen often. So I was a little worried I was going to picture Jess as some little kid (not that being fourteen makes you a little kid, please just go along with it), but I didn't! And so now I don't know why people think it's weird if adults read YA Fiction. Like, these stories are great! Everyone can read them! Everyone should read them! They're fabulous. I can't imagine picking up a book, reading the back cover, and putting it down just because the character is younger than I am. Not anymore, anyways. Heck, if I want to read Goosebumps books about twelve year olds hunting ghosts, I very well will! Life is short, do what you want.

Anyways, the setting of this story is the present! Well, probably. I mean, it's like 2005 probably but still that's very much not considered the past. So it's in the present. On an island called Lume. That's a great island name by the way, I wonder if it's real.

Well, Google tells me there is an island named Pedre de Lume, but not just Lume. Okay, moving on.

The main character, Jess, is fourteen so technically, now in 2013, she's older than me at--I think--22. My math could be off. So yeah I guess I wasn't reading about someone younger than me. Well there I go. Case solved. I should keep on topic, I know. Any-hoo, Jess is just a kid that gets pulled into this huge mess and in her place, I would have given up. Like, immediately. I don't think you understand. I love puzzles, I do, but the ones that Jess faces? Not a chance. That's why I was a little suspicious of this storyline. I mean, her mind jumps to conclusions and 97% of the time, they're the right conclusions. When does that ever happen? Yeah, never. At least not for me.

There aren't really any other big characters except for maybe Jess' mom and, of course, Epsilon. But there's not a lot to say there. I guess Sebastian is a big part too. They all kind of mush together and make the ending great.

Speaking of the ending, it was amazing. Seriously. All twisty-turny and fabulous. I love mind-bending endings. This one was written really nicely, making it easy to understand but still hurts your head if you continue to think about it, after finishing the end. Oh my gosh.

I don't know if anyone goes to GoodReads to read the reviews on these books I'm reviewing, but don't read the bad ones for this book. I mean, one says:  I had a really hard time getting through this book. It was just so dark and left a very uncomfortable feeling with me. I really couldn't read it after dark. 

I mean, really? You're going to give a book two stars because it makes you uncomfortable--which it's supposed to? There are twists and turns and cults and ghosts and monsters and god-like beings and . . . of course it's going to make you uncomfortable. It's supposed to make you think. Think about what-if's. What if this really happened. What if you had dreams like Jess. I tried reading it right before bed and it gave me the heebie-jeebies but I still kept reading it before bed. I think I love that feeling. Just thinking.

No comments:

Post a Comment