Saturday, February 18, 2006

I'm sorry, what was that?


Somehow, I got it into my head that this was Meg Cabot's School for the Gifted, ie X-Men. I was so totally wrong. This is another friggin' Arthurian sage set in modern Annapolis, MD. What is with that? Anyway, the book opens up and for the first half our dear heroine whines while she sets everything up. I have to admit that I actually considered not finishing for a couple moments. It's really not Meg's best. However, once the evil stepbrother shows up with his vibrating and mysterious darkness, things pick up. That's one thing, Cabot writes a good teenage boy villain. Her bad guy in the Mediator Series (my favorite Cabot offering) is fabulous, too. I think the key is to make them clever, indeed, sometimes more clever than the heroine, or at least better informed, if misguided and ultimately doomed. Hopefully, if there is a sequel Elaine won't have to be so annoying for the first 50ish pages. It's a Cabot book, I don't have to tell you who to give it to.

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