In the first installment of the Time Thriller trilogy, previously published as Sudden Switch (1996), 15-year-old Elizabeth Forde, angry at her parents, decides to run away—but instead she disappears while taking a bath. She appears in an alternate world, apparently having switched places with her “time twin,” Sarah Bishop, and a bizarre series of parallel events unfolds as Elizabeth tries to figure out who she is, where she is and how to return home. Elizabeth disappears too early in the story to have become enough of a fully realized character for readers to care about, however. The heart of the novel is the mysterious time warp, but whatever fascination readers may find in the premise is undermined at the end by Elizabeth’s perfunctory, “They’re the secret workings of God.” Still, readers may overlook clumsy prose and overt Christian messages to find some good fun here. (Christian science fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-310-71436-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Zondervan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s the summer of a.d. 79. Flavia, her friend Jonathan, the young mute Lupus, and the slave Nubia have lived through the eruption of Vesuvius. A camp has been set up for those who fled Pompeii. Children are disappearing, however, and rumors of slavers terrify an already scarred people. The four young heroes are sent to a lovely villa, home of the charismatic Publius Pollius Felix, ostensibly out of harm’s way. Felix is called The Patron and at first they think he may be responsible for the missing children. His own daughter is spoiled and selfish, and a catfight between her and Flavia is the proximate cause of pirates’ grabbing all of them, except Lupus. With Lupus’s wily assistance, they instigate most of their own rescue, and Flavia formally frees Nubia. What made the two earlier titles so good was their fast pace and Roman setting: this one is marred by events and mindsets that sound a bit too contemporary; still, readers will want to continue the story. (glossary, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7613-1584-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A band of preteens finds itself the target of ghoulish mischief after a neighborhood bad boy returns home from a stint in juvie. Penny Carson is 12 and happy to run wild with the boys, building forts, riding bikes, and playing softball. But when an increasingly macabre series of incidents focuses attention on Caleb Devlin and threatens to restrict the kids’ movements, Penny finds herself questioning her friendships, capabilities, and sanity. Holm very effectively creates a suburban subdivision, complete with its own smug neuroses, and has an uncanny ability to evoke the parallel society of its children, whose allegiances and power struggles are enacted with deadly seriousness. With its minivan moms, this clearly has a contemporary setting, but it also has a distinctly antique feel: these kids enjoy a freedom and autonomy almost never found in these days of highly structured lives. The thriller aspects, though, are on target, ratcheting up the tension with leisurely precision—sure to find a ready audience. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-000133-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003
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