My Secret Hideout

It's been over two years since I last read this book, and re-reading it reignited my love for the series. Most kids would agree that they grew up with Harry Potter, but I guess I am a late bloomer because I didn't start really growing up until I picked up the GONE series.

The kids in the FAYZ have been beaten, starved, and lied to, all they need now is a plague to help them cough their lungs out. Perfect, don't you think? Every time I read a book in this series, I'm still amazed at the things Michael Grant writes. He isn't afraid to put controversial things down in his stories, and PLAGUE stayed true to that. The struggles these characters go through are much more than physical; it's not always about who can throw the farthest, or jump the highest. I think that's what a lot of books, particularly in YA, lacks. Other books are always about that one special character who can do things others can't; The Chosen One. Those books are the reason why I usually despise main characters; they just feel so unrealistic. Michael Grant, on the other hand, appears to put Sam in the hero spot during the two earlier books, but as the series progresses on, the readers realize he is not invincible anymore. Instead, other characters like Edilio, Jack, and my personal favourite, Albert, begins to outshine Sam. That's probably what I enjoyed the most in this book - the depth of the "secondary characters."

Another thing I really loved about this book was how everything was so interwoven. Plots that appeared separate slowly converged and become one. It made this book unpredictable. Even when there are so many post-apocalyptic books out there, this book remained fresh and unconventional. That in itself deserves 5 stars. (And I still cannot believe Michael Grant doesn't plan out his books in advance. Like what?! What kind of sorcery is this?!)

Two characters impressed me the most in this book. One won't be a surprise. I loved her ever since GONE because I knew her story would never be dull. Who am I talking about? Only the most intricate, more-layers-than-a-wedding-cake Diana. She has always shown to be one step ahead of most people in the previous books, but she has never appeared as brave to me. Until PLAGUE rolled along, that is. I seriously cannot wait to read her storyline in FEAR!

The other character is Charles Merriman, better known as Orc. While reading this book, I genuinely felt bad for Orc. For some reason, I kind of related him to a 90 year old grandpa who is on the verge of dying. You know, when your body slowly breaks down, and you want nothing more but to end it? On top of that, Orc felt isolated, misunderstood and a burden to everyone. To me, his story is as sad as that scene in Up. You know the scene I am talking about. It doesn't have the same backstory to it, but the feeling I got was still the same. I so desperately wanted to help Carl and Ellie but deep down, I knew it was a cartoon and I can't do anything. Same thing happened with Orc, and I felt a deep sadness and helplessness. 

If you provide me with water and food, I think I can go on for days, just talking about all the things I loved about this book. But alas, life can't be perfect. I would like to conclude by saying: this book, like the rest of the series, has great re-read potential. This is simply due to the amount of details and number of plotlines thrown within this book. There is no way someone can remember it all with just one read-through. The only other time I've seen so much attention of details and connectivity is in the Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima. When you sit back and think about it, a YA, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic book has enough world, plot and character development as an epic fantasy book, you know that's high quality reading right there.

Thank you HBG Canada for providing a beautiful ARC of FM,LP

I can see many people will enjoy Forgive Me, Leonard Peacockand I admit, it definitely has a lot going for it. It's a modern story, highlighting two issues that have manage to persist through time. I will only mention one of the issues here, because I want other readers to find out about the other one as they read through the story. If you have read the description on the back of the book, you can probably guessed the issue Leonard Peacock is facing - bullying. He's been bullied to a point that committing a murder-suicide appears to be the best option. Now, I didn't give this book 5-stars because I thought it was a sad story and it moved me. Those 5-stars got there because the story was painfully realistic - no matter how much you want to deny it and live in your happy little bubble, this book brings you back down to Earth. And that hurts. Reality sucks but Matthew Quick was able to put to words feelings most of us can't express. And you better believe that deserves 5-stars.

So maybe some of you might think the plot is too cookie-cutter, because if you had previously read any bullying story, it probably went down the same way Leonard's story did. But that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Although his story may sound Plain-Jane, his character wasn't. I was able to feel Leonard's frustrations, confusion and hopelessness. The stylistic choices, like the footnotes and indents, solidified Leonard's character. His brain worked at such a fast pace that it often went on tangents (footnotes) and as a reader reading the book, it added to the chaotic feeling. At points, Leonard's internal struggles packed such a punch that I felt I needed to put down this book and reflect on what I had just read. (This explains why it took me nine days to read a 288 page book, and I'm not trying to come up with an excuse for my reading speed. Or maybe I am. ). That's when you know you've got a powerful book in your hands. 

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is my very first Matthew Quick book, and it definitely won't be my last.


P.S.: Everyone deserves their own Herr Silverman in life.

This is #2 on IGN's list of The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels and I have to admit, I can see why. This is a different Batman from most of the other Batman comics I've read. This Batman isn't afraid to kill, to do damage. In general, this Batman gave no f**ks at all. Perhaps this Batman reminded me of one of my favourite tennis player, Kim Clijsters, who retired from tennis to peruse her other goals in life. But like the Batman in this comics, her desire to rejoin tennis was reignited at an exhibition event at Wimbledon and came back fiercer and stronger. She might even give Bats some trouble, if she joins the Kent family as Supermom.

Okay, enough gushing about Kim Clijsters, back to Bats. In this new story, a new Robin is introduced (even if there is still some scars left from what happened to Jason) and she is so badass, Carrie wasn't only fast on her feet but she was also quick with her mind. She's the near-perfect companion to Batman - she knew when to follow rules and when to break them. I wish there are more stories featuring her so maybe she can get a better back story like the rest of the Robins. 

The only reason the rating is missing a star is because I felt there was almost too much squeezed into those 200 pages. It's almost like how I build my sandwich, with lots of filling and you're almost unsure how to take a bite. And when you do take a bite, half of the filling falls out and you get this incomplete taste in your mouth. That was Batman: TDKR for me. With Two Face, the Joker, the Gotham Police Department and the U.S. government all playing the antagonist role, at times I felt overwhelmed and at times, underwhelmed. By overwhelming, I mean the things on Batman's To-Do list; there was simply too much. By underwhelming, I mean the battle but put by these antagonists. Because there were so much going on, each problem Batman faced was resolved with less flare, or originality. But with that said, I still enjoyed this new spin on Batman and wish there are more Batman-Carrie partnership in the Batman universe.

(Side note: HOW IS ALFRED STILL ALIVE? Either way, I still love him.)

Thank you HBG for providing an ARC of Half Lives!

When my sister forwarded an email to me with the books available from HBG this summer, I almost didn't pick this book. Just buy reading the first 70% of the description, I was already in the "Oh-no-not-another-post-apocalyptic-novel-in-which-a-secret-was-discovered" mood. But praise the writing gods (and Sara Grant), this story has more to it than just that. It skips forward in generations and also tells the story of a future cult. Now, that is the kind of kick I was waiting for. What's even better was Ms. Grant's choice of not simply writing a story from the future perspective, because then, another dystopian story would have been born. The concept of this book is new and adventurous and where Sara got the idea for this book can be found at the end of the book in the Author's Note. Thanks to Sara, the present and the future can finally live in harmony! (And no Fire Nation jokes in the comments please.) 

When a story involves a future religious cult, one would perceive that as a serious matter - and it is. But kudos to Sara Grant for bringing in humour in her story. I mean, come on, the leader of this religious group is a teenage boy. He has bound to make some mistakes, right? I think my favourite aspect of this book has to do with the misinterpretations of Icie's story. Her story has been misunderstood by those in the future and when the reader first arrive at the future perspective, expect to be a little confused. Their words have evolved and the thing we once knew can be unknown to them. So when they all begin to chant: "Whatever! Whatever! Whatever!" don't put down the book and walk away. That disjointed feeling is the beauty of this book.

I'm still undecided as to which perspective I enjoyed more. Both had their pros and cons, and both had moments where I can and can't connect with. These present day characters are not who I usually connect to but I thought they were written very realistically. I feel like the jokes they tell and their view on life is pretty close to those of real teens. The character in the future are more of the voices I am accustomed to; these characters appear a lot in other post-apocalyptic novels, so they are a bit clichéd. But because the plot was so interesting, these characters didn't bother me. 

So overall, this book was unexpected, humorous and thought-provoking.
I will link the article Sara Grant speaks of in the Author's Note right here: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/green_room/2009/11/atomic_priesthoods_thorn_landscapes_and_munchian_pictograms.html. It is the inspiration to this book and I think it's a neat read.

Hey beautiful followers. I will be on vacation until late July. I hope you guys won't abandon me. Cannot wait to share with you guys my vacation reads! :)

- Love, Stella

I'll be on vacation starting June 12th, which is the coming Wednesday and I really want to squeeze in a review before I go AFK, so please excuse this rushed, transcribed-from-my-notes, not-nearly-as-polished-up-as-I-would-like review.

First impression: there's too much rambling about how he doesn't have emotions. Rather than doing that, I prefer the character to show how heartless they are. Words can be said, but they are just the speaker's perspective. It's actions that define you.

And when he does begin to show emotions, it was all too clichéd. Some girl and her father was able to change you for the better. Granted, Sam was a total badass. I don't care how she was described to be tall, fit and beautiful, she didn't let anyone push her around. She played people like a keyboard, and she even caught Boy Nobody off guard. It really showed that outer beauty doesn't translate to being dumb, or vice versa. But I really wished she could have handled her emotions about boys a little better. Damn, that girl has some baggage. She somehow became a weak puppy when she "falls" for boys, and I wish she wasn't like that. 

It was really neat to read about Boy Nobody's analysis of the situation he is in. The way he injects himself into someone's life, now to act on the first day of school, whether to take on the role of a badass, a loner, a jock etc. 

Sometimes, I had to roll my eyes because problems would be solved way too quickly; things that prompted a "well-that-was-convenient" eye roll from me. This is the part where I really drove home how similar this book was to Person of Interest. On the show, John almost never runs into any problem and even if there was a billion machine guns firing it at him, he manages to avoid being shot and take out half a dozen men with his Nerf gun (not really, he always has a real hand gun that comes to him whenever he requires it). Similar things happen in Boy Nobody, like a perfectly lived-in apartment so no one will suspect you are an assassin, or fighting with a group of men on a subway, only to have no one noticing or mentioning anything. It's really easy to hide under the excuse that all of the background stuff are taken care of by The Program, but I really would have liked to see a little bit of Boy Nobody setting up from his assignments, like charming the old landlord into getting an apartment near his new school for a lower price, or going to find proper clothes to fit in as a teen, or special clothes he would wear when he gets to meet the mayor. You know, more stuff that accumulates to him gaining Sam's trust, instead of gaining Sam's trust by being mysterious, flirty and hard-to-get.

With all that said, I totally love the show Person of Interest. The cases are interesting, the villains are great villains, not to mention John and Harold makes a great team. Boy Nobody comes close to how entertaining Person of Interest is. My favourite part has to be how The Program communicates with Boy Nobody. They talk in code and it's so interesting to read about the reason behind each code, like the length of each assignment is disguised as the size of a picture file, to how to signal for a clean-up crew (by reporting in a Hazardous Condition using the Weather Channel app). Man, I want an iPhone that can go into secure-mode...not that I need a clean-up crew to clean up any dead bodies... 

I've seen a couple of reviews talking about how the writing of this book is a bit amateur. I have to agree, mostly because it's fairly choppy. There are a lot of dramatic emphasis put into the writing but I saw it as an expression of Boy Nobody. He has always been about getting from Point A to Point B in the most efficient way, which means the chapters should be kept short and accented, because that's the way he thinks. It also adds to the pace and suspense of the novel, to have quick, short chapters. But I think Allen Zadoff missed out on an opportunity to show Boy Nobody's transformation a little bit further, by elongating the chapters as the story progressed. Granted, the pace of the story would have been slowed down by quite a lot. but I think the way Boy Nobody conducted his actions also slowed down. Ah, whatever, I'm just rambling on now. This is what happens when I realized how bad I was at analysing books back in high school. Now I'm trying to over-compensate by over-analysing. :P 

Overall, this was an okay thriller that deals with espionage, assassins and finding one self. Considering it's hard to find YA books within this genre, it is a worthy read. But, if anyone is interested, they should watch Person of Interest instead.

This is one of the very first nonfiction books I read purely out of interest. All of the other times I picked up a nonfiction was for research purposes. This is probably why I enjoyed this book more than I did most nonfictions and I am hoping to read Larson's other book once I get my hands on it.

I must hand it to Erik Larson, this book must took forever to write. You can sense the amount of research that went into this book right from the first chapter. He uses actual quotations in this book but made sure there was enough entertainment surrounding it so it didn't feel like you were gnawing down on facts for 400 pages. 

My favourite parts were, as expected, about Dr. H. H. Holmes. It's incredible to learn just how cunning and creepy this man was. Everything he did was for a reason, a move in a game of chess. His moves were calculated and he was always looking to take out the opponent's pieces. I think that's why I really enjoyed his POV, because I was able to take a glimpse at the brilliant and demented mind of Dr. H. H. Holmes. He was charming, smart and handsome. If only he had gone down a more righteous path...

The other perspective of this novel talks about the architects who built the Chicago World's Fair. I admire beautiful buildings and you can totally win me over if your house has a beautiful library. With that said, the parts revolving around architecture were nice but I think there is something about us humans that just love to read about crimes, especially serial killers. We're sick like that. I'm no exception and I found myself yearning for another chapter about Dr. Holmes every time the story was brought back to Burnham. 

So overall, I really enjoyed the historical accuracy of the novel, along with spine-tingling story of Dr. Holmes. I just wish there was more of him within those 400 pages.

I know a lot of people enjoyed this graphic novel. According to goodreads, over 10,000 of you have given it 5/5 stars but I didn't see the greatness in it.

My biggest problem with it were with the characters. There wasn't one I could relate to. Characters did things that I could not imagine ever happening in my own life/family. 

Let's start off with Craig and his younger brother, Phil. Their story, in my opinion, was the best part of Blankets (maybe because I could sort of relate to them) and I wish their relationship could have played a bigger part in the story. These two behaved how you would expect brothers to behave: fighting, arguing, yet somehow, still loving one another. (I also felt like the story missed out on an opportunity to really grab me when Craig Thompson failed to address The Thing [SPOILER: the sexual abuse experienced by both boys END OF SPOILER] directly. Maybe it was kind of vague because that's what artists do: they make you think, but I really longed for a sense of closure concerning The Thing. Maybe that's just life; you can't get an answer for every question you have. It is an autobiography after all.

Moving on to the other characters in the story, Raina and her family and also Craig's family. Both are Christian, and Raina's family is going through a divorce. See, my family isn't religious and we're all very happy so perhaps that played into why I failed to connect with these characters but I think there is more to it than that. The biggest hurdle I couldn't get over with was how easily Craig was able to convince his parents it was okay to visit Raina for two weeks, when both were seniors in high school. (Keep in mind one lives in Wisconsin and one in Michigan, not terribly far, but still). Your senior year is when you have to dig deep and really focus on school, especially in the U.S., with their SATs and whatnot. Looking back to my grade 12 year, if I had missed two weeks of school, I might as well have kissed my diploma goodbye. No way could I have survived math, physics and biology since those courses move at the speed of light. That is why I winced every time the topic of "skipping school" was brought up. 

Also, Raina invited a boy to stay with her. I know, both families were Christian and I guess they just had that sense of trust but my parents would have watched him like hawks, regardless of his faith. So whenever Raina's mom comes home from work, she says her goodnights and retires to bed, when her teenage daughter is left alone with a boy from a neighbouring state. Granted, she was exhausted but my mom would have asked Craig to go to his guest room and then locked, bolted, and booby-trapped my room so he couldn't get in when the lights were off. Rain's mom wasn't the only one to get on my nerve. Raina's dad found them in bed together (just sleeping, nothing more) and he didn't do anything. You know what my dad would have done? He would have kicked him so hard he would fly into space and become the U.S.'s new satellite. And, here is the scariest part: I wouldn't be off the hook either; he would have also taken away my internet privileges!

So overall, the story was a great coming of age story but there were just too many things that was just not me. I can't possibly give this more than two stars.

First of all, I had a little laugh, looking at how many to people immediately marked The Monstrumologist as to-read, once they finished off with this book. Let me spoil the fun, by saying that book is not like this book. That book was an eye (haha) opening experience, and left me thinking while I laid down to sleep every night. That book was perfection, and this was a little sub-par.

I never expected to give this book less that five-sparkly stars. I mean, come on, it's RICK YANCEY. The Monstrumologist is one of my all-time favourite books and Will Henry remains one of my all-time favourite book characters.

I can see the appeal of this book and I understand why most people LOVE this book, but in my opinion, there are better books out there that offer more intensity, more betrayals and more heartbreak. The two books/series I am talking about is theChaos Walking trilogy and Ender's Game.

First, I would like to talk about what makes the Chaos Walking trilogy a better substitute:

A: It offers superior alternating POVs, switching between male and female. When Patrick Ness ends one of the perspectives, he stops at somewhere that leaves you thinking, and you almost have to put the book down and reflect on life for a good five minutes. I think that occurred a couple of times throughout The 5th Wave, but most of the other times, it stops at a cliffhanger. Cliffhangers are great and they gets your heart pumping, but that is quickly sputtered out by the other POV, which is in its build-up phase. That excitement inflicted by the cliffhanger is sent into hyperpolarization, which is a term used to describe neurons in our brain. It basically means my feelings for this spiked, an now, as I see a new POV is beginning and it is in its build-up phase, I get bored. My feelings about whatever exciting just happened, drops. It drops below even the boredom of the incoming POV. Because I know I have to sit through ~30 pages before I get back to that cliffhanger. Pretend the Resting Membrane potential is me reading, and something exciting happens and action potential occurs, but the disconnection of the POVs puts me in to a screeching halt and drop into hyperpolarization.
This is the exact reason why I steered away from A Game of Thrones. The anticipation dies after George R. R. Martin goes through about 15 other characters (exaggeration) before coming back to the one I was really excited about.

I'm going to put more stuff about a neuron firing under the spoiler tag.

The charge a neuron is usually at is somewhere from -70 miliVolts to -90 mV. In this diagram, it's at -90 mV. When a stimulus is strong enough to generate an action potential (causes the neuron to fire), it spikes all the way up into the positives. Once it peaks, some exchange of ions happens (I'm trying to keep this simple), and the voltage drops down, approaching it's preferred Resting Membrane Potential (of - 90 mV). But to make sure it goes back to -90 mV, it hyperpolarizes and goes pass -90 mV, as a safety insurance. Then it kind of back pedals to go back to -90 mV.

B: The enemy seems more invincible. I know Rick put a lot of effort into making the Others appear powerful and destructive, but I never really felt like that last drop of hope evaporated. I loved how devastated Chaos Walking made me feel, every time something bad happened. (DARN YOU MAYOR PRENTISS!) It's the same way the Joker makes his readers feel. You feel like the Joker is always a step ahead, and no matter how hard the Batman tried, he'll always be behind the curtains, unable to get a full view of the Joker's plans. I really wanted to get frustrated, and have my heart pulled out of my chest, yet it never really happened. 

Now, moving on to why Ender's Game was better written. I admit, I don't really have that much of a problem with this part, as I did with the halting POVs; I just felt like rooting for Ender more. Whatever hardship happens in The 5th Wave, I never really felt sympathetic of them, and they go through a lot of crap. Life is hard for them, yet I never connected with any of the characters. That was my biggest problem. 

Lastly, I want to address Cassie. Every other review seem to raves about her: how tough she is, how she is such a badass, and how much she cares about her little brother (this is good, other two points, not so much). I am a little bit tired for characters being labelled as tough, when all they are is stubborn and sassy (and a little bit whiney). There is too much physical toughness in YA female characters, and while that is great, we can't forget mental toughness. I think being clever and cunning is even better. When someone you don't completely trust tries to help you, I get your hesitation. But, can we not go through the whole "I didn't your help because I am not a damsel in distress" thing? That just shows rudeness and how stubborn you are. Instead, try and act nice, and thankful. If they are trying to play you, play them back. Keep them guessing what your true intent is, and be tough mentally. That is what I want to see in a female character. Someone who is witty, cunning and deceptive. (Another reason why Chaos Walking is the Crème de la crème).

I would like to thank Cersei Lannister, Margaery Tyrell, Diana Ladris 1.0 and Mistress Coyle for being cunning b*tches who played people like puppets. 

I do think this could work as a movie. But the first 80 pages is a lot of exposition and throughout the entire book, here is A LOT of inner monologue. I don't know how they will translate that on-screen. The first 80 pages could have been summed up in a 2-minute intro to the movie. Here is my take on it:

The first 50 pages feels like the intro of a movie where it's just scenery shots with a voice-over of the main character.

The beginning 50 pages would appear in the movie like this. -wide sweeping view of abandoned cities, smoke rising- -female voice-over-

/Hi, My name is Cassie, short for Cassiopeia, and I could very likely be the last human alive on Earth. 

We first spotted them just beyond Mars; their ships massive and not at all like the flying saucers we had imagined. 

We reacted like how you would expect us to react. Some panicked, fearing an alien invasion, while some rejoiced at the possibility of an Earth and Alien alliance. As you can see, the latter was very disappointed.

-shows clips of car crashed, planes falling out of the sky-
The 1st Wave hit and only took out half a million people. It was only an electromagnetic pulse that stopped all of the electronics. Not so bad. The 2nd was far worst. 

-shows clips of the rod falling, people running from the waves, and drowning-
Those mother fuckers knew that an earthquake at the bottom of the ocean had the potential to create a tsunami. So they dropped a metal rod twice as tall as the Empire State Building on a fault line and BAM. 3 billion people drowned. 

-show swarms of birds flying and squawking-
The 3rd Wave was the worst. They turned our own birds on us. 300 million flying shitters crapped out an airborne version of the Ebola virus and there goes 97% of the remaining 4 billion.

They killed 99% of us humans without having to come out of their not-saucer-like ship. They turned nature on us and we had not idea how to defend ourselves.

Unfortunately, I survived all three waves. I will never see my parents again, I will never hug my best friend Lizbeth anymore, and I will never be able to stare at the most perfect boy in the universe, Ben Parish, any longer. Even though he never knew I existed.

Instead, I am now running away from the remaining 1%. Why? Because you never know if it is one of Them. They appear to be normal human beings. Same body proportions, same face, same sadness in their eyes. You would never be able to tell its one of Them until they shoot you between your eyes. 

I haven't seen another human being, or human being look-a-likes in so long that I'm beginning to think I might be the only one alive. If you are reading this, congratulations. You proved me wrong.

-camera switches to an over-the-shoulder shot of a girl writing on in a notebook-

tldr; This book was a subdued lovechild of the intense Chaos Walking trilogy and Ender's Game.

Ever since I finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I haven't been able to find a good alternative. There are some great middle grade series out there, don't get me wrong. But none of them had the same feel to it as PJO.

Until now.

This book had a lot of similar elements to PJO. The one stood out to me the most was its humour. Rick Riordan was able to infuse humour into his books even when things got tense. What's even better was that the humour did not come from one single "comic relief character." Peter Lerangis took a page right out of Riordan's How to Write a Fantastic Book Series and did exactly that. Every one of the characters was capable of delivering a funny punchline and that showed great versatility. I really love it when a character is more than just "The Hero", "The Clown" or "The Nerd." Because in some way, everyone has those characteristics within them. Jack, Marco, Aly and Cass all displayed those characteristics and it made the story much more believable. And the best part of all is that they all had equal opportunities to shine; although the story was told in Jack's perspective, all of them could be viewed as the main character.

Another character I thought Lerangis delivered really well was Torquin. He is a large henchman to the Karai Institute. Stereotypically, the large henchman is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and is usually used as a comic relief. Sure, Torquin had his funny moments, but he also showed that he is just like you and me. He gets frustrated when he has to come in on his day off, he hates babysitting the kids, yet, he is smart enough to monitor the entire institute's surveillance system and can notice when things feel off. At times you feel bad for him, and then you realize you really hate his stubbornness. 

If you're not a fan of Rick Riordan (although that is impossible), there are other aspects of this novel that might appeal to you. Like in the 39 Clues, this book drew in historical elements and made me really interested in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I go gaga for anything about ancient civilization, which made my time in my time in my grade 11 history class oh so enjoyable. This book had puzzles and riddles that needed to be solved and fans of the 39 Clues series should definitely check it out.

There was also another element of this story that I enjoyed and it reminded me a bit of the Immortal Nicholas Flammel series (by Michael Scott). But I will put this under the spoiler tag just in case you find it spoilery. 

POTENTIAL SPOILERS:

I like how the children don't really trust Dr. Bhegard and the Karai Institute, just like Josh and Sophie with Nicholas Flammel. I think their suspicion is justified and I am curious to read on to see if any of them would turn against the professor.

END OF SPOILERS

P.S.: Totally adored the illustrations! They were an essential part to the puzzle solving. Excellent.

- Scott Westerfeld

- "Monsters of Men" by Patrick Ness.