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A review by karen_k77
Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
4.0
I love Kenneth Oppel's books. I love his writing style, his characterization, his humor. And I love the idea of this book. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that it just didn't WOW me, although I was suitably impressed.
So Ben's parents surprise him one day by announcing that they'll be taking on a project involving a baby chimp. They'll be teaching the chimp, named Zan, sign language, in order to grasp how well animals can understand and apply language. Ben is annoyed and jealous at first, but his and Zan's relationship soon grows just as unbreakable and heart-warming as the relationship between two biological brothers. Ben is just as protective of Zan as many normal older brothers are of their younger siblings. It's adorable.
I liked Ben well enough. I really liked him, actually. He wasn't physically described, so I kept switching between mental images, but that's not really important. Personality-wise, he was characterized as a normal teenager; he wants to fit in, have friends, date girls. He has some anger issues, but everyone does, I guess. I got creeped out over his obsession with Jennifer, and his often random comments about breasts and feeling aroused and whatnot. But he's a teenage boy, and I'm not, so there's obviously going to be some differences in the way we think. I don't hold it against him.
I didn't really understand what the main conflict was, but my theory is that there really isn't one. It's just the life of a boy with his chimp half-brother. There wasn't a set villain, although Jack Helson came pretty close.
I loved Zan, honestly. He just sounded so adorable. Understandably, he wasn't characterized much beyond being a chimp, but that was sort of the point of the book, right? You can take a chimp out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the chimp? He wasn't supposed to have an exceedingly human-like personality. He had personality, don't get me wrong, and he had control of a small vocabulary, so it was interesting to see the similarities he had with his half-brother. And there were a lot of similarities. But he also had that certain aspect to him that could never be erased; he's a wild animal. So it was great to see what kind of balance Oppel would create between Zan's human upbringing and his genetic nature. That's the intellectually stimulating part of this novel.
That being said, I like the cover because it looks like the men and women they put on bathroom signs.
The plot, while it was fun and humorous and kind of weird sometimes, isn't really the kind of plot I can go over in detail without taking an hour to write this all down. Family gets chimp. Boy, at first, is jealous. Boy ends up loving chimp like brother. Then chimp has to go away. But chimp is almost sent to a medical lab where nasty scientists will do sadistic experiments on him. That's about the best I can do. It was a good story.
I recommend everyone read this book. It isn't SUPER FANTASTIC AMAZING, but it is pretty good. I haven't read a Kenneth Oppel book I didn't like, so I also recommend you check out more of his books. They're all awesome. The Silverwing series and the Airborn series in particular. From one reader to another. Read those books. And this one.
So Ben's parents surprise him one day by announcing that they'll be taking on a project involving a baby chimp. They'll be teaching the chimp, named Zan, sign language, in order to grasp how well animals can understand and apply language. Ben is annoyed and jealous at first, but his and Zan's relationship soon grows just as unbreakable and heart-warming as the relationship between two biological brothers. Ben is just as protective of Zan as many normal older brothers are of their younger siblings. It's adorable.
I liked Ben well enough. I really liked him, actually. He wasn't physically described, so I kept switching between mental images, but that's not really important. Personality-wise, he was characterized as a normal teenager; he wants to fit in, have friends, date girls. He has some anger issues, but everyone does, I guess. I got creeped out over his obsession with Jennifer, and his often random comments about breasts and feeling aroused and whatnot. But he's a teenage boy, and I'm not, so there's obviously going to be some differences in the way we think. I don't hold it against him.
I didn't really understand what the main conflict was, but my theory is that there really isn't one. It's just the life of a boy with his chimp half-brother. There wasn't a set villain, although Jack Helson came pretty close.
I loved Zan, honestly. He just sounded so adorable. Understandably, he wasn't characterized much beyond being a chimp, but that was sort of the point of the book, right? You can take a chimp out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the chimp? He wasn't supposed to have an exceedingly human-like personality. He had personality, don't get me wrong, and he had control of a small vocabulary, so it was interesting to see the similarities he had with his half-brother. And there were a lot of similarities. But he also had that certain aspect to him that could never be erased; he's a wild animal. So it was great to see what kind of balance Oppel would create between Zan's human upbringing and his genetic nature. That's the intellectually stimulating part of this novel.
That being said, I like the cover because it looks like the men and women they put on bathroom signs.
The plot, while it was fun and humorous and kind of weird sometimes, isn't really the kind of plot I can go over in detail without taking an hour to write this all down. Family gets chimp. Boy, at first, is jealous. Boy ends up loving chimp like brother. Then chimp has to go away. But chimp is almost sent to a medical lab where nasty scientists will do sadistic experiments on him.
Spoiler
Boy saves chimp. Chimp still has to go away, albeit to a safer place, a sanctuary. End.I recommend everyone read this book. It isn't SUPER FANTASTIC AMAZING, but it is pretty good. I haven't read a Kenneth Oppel book I didn't like, so I also recommend you check out more of his books. They're all awesome. The Silverwing series and the Airborn series in particular. From one reader to another. Read those books. And this one.