This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
My rating: 4/5 cats
huh. i had never heard of this kenneth oppel fellow, but i guess he’s some big deal in YA publishing. i have so much to learn.
i liked this book very much. but more important than my enjoyment, this is going to be a great book for reluctant boy readers. that’s a big problem in the world of educators and librarians: “why won’t the boys reeeeead??” and from where i’m standing, i get it. most of the YA stuff is all girls girls girls. and although there are some fantastic books for boys, i have read a bunch of them, there need to be more, all the time, to keep up with all the unicorn hunters and vampire love triangles that may as well be push-up bras and powder puffs and make boys feel outnumbered, when confronted with a YA fiction department in a bookstore or library…
this book is perfect for those poor overwhelmed boys. don’t get me wrong, girls are going to love it, too, but it’s just full of adventure and alchemy and monsters and it all leads up to frankenstein. eventually, i guess. not so much in this book.
this book is about victor frankenstein, aged 15. and his twin brother konrad and their cousin, elizabeth. when konrad becomes deathly ill, victor and elizabeth secretly become involved with a creepy doctor and the quest to mix up the elixir of life to save him.
there are…difficulties.
his writing is great—it takes the suspenseful bits and drags them out enough to be gripping, but not so much that it frustrates one of those reluctant boy readers. it’s good stuff, truly. there are some great action scenes, and some more tender moments, and all the characters come alive in their own way. the beginning part reminded me of the peggy parish books i used to love, in which liza, bill, and jed had their adventures and followed the clues to wonderful conclusions. that is high praise—those books saw me through many years of my youth.
my only grump with this is the discomfort i feel when dealing with the fictitious childhood of a fictitious character, where there are streets named wollstonekraft alley and doctors named polidori. it’s cute to have these references, but it complicates things a little, no?? but, then i remember that this book is intended for ages twelve and up, and i should stop thinking too hard and just enjoy this as a well-written adventure story with some great takes on loyalty and love, and the complications therein.
this book of his looks very good—i am definitely going to check it out as well: Half Brother.
but you read this one, yeah?
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