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milly_in_the_library's review against another edition
4.0
one of my Y8s loaned me this after our 'book chat' the other day- it has some really good writing; an impressive recommendation!
vikingwolf's review against another edition
3.0
Adam kissed his best friend's girl and was responsible for Danny being kicked out of school. He has Betrayed and now he has been snatched from his home to a high security prison to serve hundreds of years for his crime. But even amongst other criminals, there is one ready to betray them all to the guards for a ticket home. Who can you trust?
This was a decent YA dystopian read where a prison in a different time dimension punishes kids for betraying friends and family by locking them in prison. There is a Colditz air to it with the Tally Ho escape committee which Adam keeps getting on the wrong side of, and the evil Gestapo like guard of Mr Pitt, making everyone's lives a misery. Adults who have read [b:The Colditz Story|1079482|The Colditz Story (Cassell Military Paperbacks)|P.R. Reid|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335370700s/1079482.jpg|1066211] will recognise the scenes in this book especially the big escape plan. The prison is grim and time passes very slowly when you have a long sentence here. The side characters were interesting and I liked the whole set up of the Dial prison and the way it worked. It was nicely thought out and developed. It was good enough to keep you interested in what was happening and see if anyone could find a way to escape.
I did feel it was a bit obvious about the identity of the bandage boy and who the traitor actually was but it didn't really detract from the story. Other things like echo did surprise me. It was a fast paced book that always had something happening and it kept you guessing what was coming next.
But I really am so mad at how the book ended. All throught the book, Adam was devoted to his friends and was determined not to escape until his friends had the same chance. He risks everything to find a way for everyone to escape and he would NEVER in a million years have made the choice that he did at the end. It was such a massive let down that I almost deducted a star from my rating. I really really hate it when a good book is spoiled by the ending and sadly this one left a sour taste in my mouth.
This was a decent YA dystopian read where a prison in a different time dimension punishes kids for betraying friends and family by locking them in prison. There is a Colditz air to it with the Tally Ho escape committee which Adam keeps getting on the wrong side of, and the evil Gestapo like guard of Mr Pitt, making everyone's lives a misery. Adults who have read [b:The Colditz Story|1079482|The Colditz Story (Cassell Military Paperbacks)|P.R. Reid|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335370700s/1079482.jpg|1066211] will recognise the scenes in this book especially the big escape plan. The prison is grim and time passes very slowly when you have a long sentence here. The side characters were interesting and I liked the whole set up of the Dial prison and the way it worked. It was nicely thought out and developed. It was good enough to keep you interested in what was happening and see if anyone could find a way to escape.
I did feel it was a bit obvious about the identity of the bandage boy and who the traitor actually was but it didn't really detract from the story. Other things like echo did surprise me. It was a fast paced book that always had something happening and it kept you guessing what was coming next.
But I really am so mad at how the book ended. All throught the book, Adam was devoted to his friends and was determined not to escape until his friends had the same chance. He risks everything to find a way for everyone to escape and he would NEVER in a million years have made the choice that he did at the end. It was such a massive let down that I almost deducted a star from my rating. I really really hate it when a good book is spoiled by the ending and sadly this one left a sour taste in my mouth.
elleneam's review against another edition
2.0
I'm sure that this book would be very good if you are aged 9 - 12, but PLEASE IGNORE THE RATING TEEN ON THE BACK OF THE BOOK, most teenagers will find this book very immature and simplistic. The plot is not bad, but as I said anyone over the age of 13 will just be bored.
lawbooks600's review against another edition
3.0
7/10, looking back at this book it was an enjoyable novel but it was very underwhelming and didn't age well compared to the other science fiction books that I read. The characters were all very flat and the story was mildly interesting so I read on to see where it was going. The plot begins when the main character Adam betrays his friend Dylan and then a massive airship comes out of nowhere and on it there is a man who would sentence Adam to 300 years in a special prison called the Dial which runs on a different time system than Earth's so that amount of time is only like 3 days on Earth. He stays in prison for a while and discovers that people are trying to escape the prison and the only escape is the portal outside the prison, but somehow in the end a massive battle happens where the airship and the portal are destroyed and there is no way the characters can escape. Unless they build a new portal to escape they are stuck there forever until they die, how dumb of a move is that since they just sealed their fates. Some parts of the world-building were still unexplained and there's no sequel to this book so it's just a standalone which was disappointing to see. If you like an original yet obscure science fiction novel this is for you but there are other ones better than this that you can read.
chloeuzzell's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
georgiaahxo's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
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