Escape From Shadow Island - Max Cassidy 1 (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
This book is a must read for anyone who loved the Alex Rider adventures. Like Alex Rider, Max Cassidy is a fourteen year old boy with extraordinary talents and a very tragic back story.Max's Mother is in jail for murdering his father and now his father's former magician's assistant is his legal guardian and Max must preform two magic shows a week in order to pay the mortgage. After a mysterious stranger confronts Max after a show he sets out for south America to find proof that his mom is innocent and that his dad is alive. As with Alex Rider the bad guys will soon learn the easiest to deal with a troublesome youngster is to never have ruined his life to begin with. This book feels it is necessary to explain what the definition of “implode” is, and than 20 pages later uses the word “soporific” without any explanation. I don't know if the author thinks he is addressing smart children or dumb adults. This thriller revolves around a teenage boy whose father is murdered and his mother is accused of the crime and put in jail. This seems to be a common theme; this is the second book I've read this summer with this plot (the first is Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn – if you have to choose between the two, pick Flinn). Of course, the boy knows that his mother is innocent and sets out trying to prove this fact. The boy (age 14) is also an escape artist – I mean, like Houdini. The author also makes up a very corrupt country in Central America called Santo Domingo (no relation to the REAL Santo Domingo, which is the capital of the Dominican Republic). This book is completely unbelievable. The dialogue and writing seems dumbed-down. I realize this is very tempting to do for authors who write for “young adults” but it should be avoided. The best YA authors do not dumb-down the material (Chronicles of Narnia, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events etc.).
What do You think about Escape From Shadow Island - Max Cassidy 1 (2011)?
Skimmed through, but got the basics. didn't really like it all that much.
—Angela
really good book lots of action,adventure and mystery
—Watsup
this is an amazing book if you like mysteries
—jaydenrox
