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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
What a book! I don't want to talk too much about this book since the pleasure in this book is all in the reading and being a bit gobsmacked by how weird it is...but I'll say a few words. This book is another YA book by Sleator and may be the most famous of his books? And it has a significant place in my own personal history as well, but we'll get to that book in a bit. Without wanting to spoil too much of this book, it involves a young boy on a summer vacation at the beach...who ends up embroiled in an epic board game playing adventure with these super cool people...except the board game may not be just a board game and the super cool people may be aliens from outer space?? The imagination in this book is off the charts and it's an incredibly fun book to read and I enjoyed reading it...even now at my advanced age! Nothing too deep here, just a fantastically weird romp of a book. Read it and enjoy. And now my personal testimonial? I think I read this book for the first time when I was 12 (possibly 13?) and my imagination was so fired up by this book that I simply had to try and recreate the board game from the book. I began reconstructing the game using our back porch...and soon recruited Maryanne and Laura to help...and soon enough we had note-cards and "game pieces" taking up the whole porch. This initial version was a weird hodgepodge of a game...incorporating bits from Star Trek, Star Wars...and this book. Yes, the goal of the game was to win The Piggy (makes sense if you read the book, I promise). Using a porch as a game board was obviously not sustainable long-term, so me and the sisters made a project of it and over time constructed a game that could be transported, had all its own "event cards", "character cards", "item cards", "planet cards", etc, etc. My sisters ended up doing far more work on it than I did...and we had a pretty awesome (and super fun!!) game by the end of it. We to this day lament that the "board" for this game has somehow become lost and we can't replay it anymore. Anyway, thanks for indulging me in my personal story, but just wanted to highlight this book as being a book that really lit the fire of my imagination and led to countless hours of happy play for me and my sisters.
Some YA fiction is aimed at the younger set - this is one. Bonus, it is science fiction, though far from the hard-SF that I enjoyed as a youth. Most of the high ratings are for nostalgia, where this is my first time. Not sure I can recommend this book.
The scooby doo mystery takes a few chapters to get rolling. After that, most chapters kept my interest, though there were slow patches. At other times, important action happened in just half a page. The pace was ragged.
The plot worked, and wasn't predictable or narrow - though the focus was quite linear. No side story, no romance, and very soft science fiction. As the protagonist was fond of sci fi (and shown reading [b:The Puppet Masters|7171856|The Puppet Masters|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348052588s/7171856.jpg|2534984] early on), I am surprised he didn't ask more questions when he had the chance.
I don't plan to seek out the sequel (written 18 years later), but would welcome a conversation with someone who loved this book. For me, it was just OK.
The scooby doo mystery takes a few chapters to get rolling. After that, most chapters kept my interest, though there were slow patches. At other times, important action happened in just half a page. The pace was ragged.
The plot worked, and wasn't predictable or narrow - though the focus was quite linear. No side story, no romance, and very soft science fiction. As the protagonist was fond of sci fi (and shown reading [b:The Puppet Masters|7171856|The Puppet Masters|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348052588s/7171856.jpg|2534984] early on), I am surprised he didn't ask more questions when he had the chance.
I don't plan to seek out the sequel (written 18 years later), but would welcome a conversation with someone who loved this book. For me, it was just OK.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the second time I've read this book; it holds up moderately solidly, especially considering the intended audience.
Some of the prose is kinda clunky, and the mystery- is a bit obvious, though I'm not sure if that's just because I hazily remembered some of the plot points.
Some of the prose is kinda clunky, and the mystery- is a bit obvious, though I'm not sure if that's just because I hazily remembered some of the plot points.
I just had a horrible flashback to highschool. This was a class read my English teacher made us read. I can not believe all these years later I still remember this horrific book. Some memories are better left covered over with a dark blackness never to be revealed. This is one of them but unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky.
It was horrible then and I don't care what anyone says I'm not about to 'give it a try' now. Some books don't deserve a second chance. This one doesn't deserve a first chance. There are better ways to spend your time than this. You could, for example, scrub the shower or pet an angry porcupine. The most this book deserves is a moment of silence for the book that was murdered on its behalf.
It was horrible then and I don't care what anyone says I'm not about to 'give it a try' now. Some books don't deserve a second chance. This one doesn't deserve a first chance. There are better ways to spend your time than this. You could, for example, scrub the shower or pet an angry porcupine. The most this book deserves is a moment of silence for the book that was murdered on its behalf.
Lots of great ideas. I'm glad I re-read this book. The descriptions of the female characters is gross, but nothing compared to Heinlein's Puppet Masters (mentioned in the book as part of the inspiration.). Small spoiler:This may have been the first book I read with a transgender character. Big spoiler:I loved that the aliens were unable to put the game in context.
Content Warnings
Minor: Misogyny
I first read this in 7th grade and it blew my mind. Now I'm 35 and I decided to buy a bundle of William Sleator books from eBay and see if they stood up.
This one stands up, but I will say that to my adult mind, what happens is predictable, despite this being an astoundingly creative little novel. Maybe I remembered some from my youth, but I don't think so. It was somewhat humorous to me that it took Barney so much longer to figure stuff out than it took me. But, yeah, I'm a grown up who has read many novels and novels kind of HAVE TO GO A CERTAIN WAY. You learn this a lot when you read books about how to write different genre books: the readers will not be satisfied unless the novel goes a certain way, and more-or-less the same way every time. Once you understand this, it becomes far easier to guess what will happen in a book, and you're less and less likely to ignore clues.
That said, this is a great one. I really think every kid would be entertained and enraptured by it. I remember feeling anxiety as a child, not yet understanding that books always have a happy ending. I look forward to reading the sequel, which I have in my possession.
This one stands up, but I will say that to my adult mind, what happens is predictable, despite this being an astoundingly creative little novel. Maybe I remembered some from my youth, but I don't think so. It was somewhat humorous to me that it took Barney so much longer to figure stuff out than it took me. But, yeah, I'm a grown up who has read many novels and novels kind of HAVE TO GO A CERTAIN WAY. You learn this a lot when you read books about how to write different genre books: the readers will not be satisfied unless the novel goes a certain way, and more-or-less the same way every time. Once you understand this, it becomes far easier to guess what will happen in a book, and you're less and less likely to ignore clues.
That said, this is a great one. I really think every kid would be entertained and enraptured by it. I remember feeling anxiety as a child, not yet understanding that books always have a happy ending. I look forward to reading the sequel, which I have in my possession.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
My whole class read this in seventh grade, and I remember liking it but it being a little scary. I wanted to reread it now to see if it holds up, and it does! I still liked it, and some parts of it were still kind of scary. I'm so glad I got to find it through interlibrary loan and revisit it.
I just had a horrible flashback to highschool. This was a class read my English teacher made us read. I can not believe all these years later I still remember this horrific book. Some memories are better left covered over with a dark blackness never to be revealed. This is one of them but unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky.
It was horrible then and I don't care what anyone says I'm not about to 'give it a try' now. Some books don't deserve a second chance. This one doesn't deserve a first chance. There are better ways to spend your time than this. You could, for example, scrub the shower or pet an angry porcupine. The most this book deserves is a moment of silence for the book that was murdered on its behalf.
It was horrible then and I don't care what anyone says I'm not about to 'give it a try' now. Some books don't deserve a second chance. This one doesn't deserve a first chance. There are better ways to spend your time than this. You could, for example, scrub the shower or pet an angry porcupine. The most this book deserves is a moment of silence for the book that was murdered on its behalf.
A weird sci-fi sort of story.
I enjoyed "House of Stairs" and "Green Futures ..." better, FYI.
I enjoyed "House of Stairs" and "Green Futures ..." better, FYI.