Had to read this because I have to read everything Pike writes. At first it was like "oh no. not another one of those suburban white girl wet dream fantasies". Then it got cheesy with the carpet. Then after accepting that the carpet is a thing, it got interesting. Even though the situations everybody found themselves in were completely unbelievable (more so than Monster or Whisper of Death... probably because it was so goddamn cheese I didn't want to believe it), the way people handled these situations seemed believable for the most part. Some parts were better than others. Amesh's dead arm reattached to his body was fucked up! Up until that point I thought it was sort of like a softer - pre -teen novel.. then his arm smelled like fermeldahyde and was obviously still dead and BOOM. fucking gross!I still have trouble believing the "white girl is descendent from ancient beings of power". I mean, okay i'll accept it so I can get through the book but, c'mon Pike. I hate that shit. white people aren't that cool. Same with the Last Vampire. I haven't read all of them but really, this white/blonde chick is the oldest being on earth and has connections to all these intense historical happenings? um.. okay. I'll believe it because I like to read it. But in real life, white people are probably the least ancient-ly connected to earth. .. truly. who on planet earth is more out of touch than white people?Okay, so the arm was gross. The relationship between humans and their djinn was interesting. The whole, phrase it right because they're trying to trick you thing. ... who is master/who is powerful question. That brought in some neat dynamics you don't see too often.OF course the best part was Pike's description of the heroine enduring great physical strain. Phew.. getting the crap kicked out of her and frozen water torture death. I love it when they die and then discover something and come back (a la "Witch"). I'll admit, I did get attached to this book. I blew through it in about three days. I just wanted to solve the goddamn mystery. There was so much going on at any one point, always something to be solved. Definitely a lot of parts that were a bit laughable, like when the carpet knocks at her window, and other parts when it's like "what? what? really?", when her dad isn't really her dad but an eager to please slave to an evil power-race and had tracked her down when she was born because he knew she possessed the bloodline to be "kala" and that is the most powerful thing ever. It was all a set up!?? I guess it made it more interesting. still.. some things were too easy. like flying everybody to safety after she returns to the cave with the carpet and then they go on a shopping spree. What? Also, all the evil beings completely disappeared. Weren't they supposed to be tracking her down? Aren't Sara and her magic carpet the most important goddamn things in the universe or something? dunno what happened there. I guess Pike just wanted everybody to be happy and get new clothes and electronic gadgets. don't know what to say about that. Kind of got to the point of just accepting whatever happened because the whole thing was like.."what? okay whatever. what? okay whatever." a lot (will find better vocabulary later, i promise).overall. decent, i got sucked into it. still some weak parts, but nothing horrible. not the best premise Pike has ever come up with, but interesting considering what he chose to work with. The characters were frustratingly irritating. But, that's not a bad thing. The characters were kids, so them being naive and unreasonable makes sense. Kinda like watching a Jersey Shore, or some other incredibly irritating reality show, and you are just yelling at them that they are too stupid to insult. Just frustrating. Can't really expect more from kids.I liked the plot line. Great kids story.
What do You think about Secret Of Ka (2010)?
A really good book, but I'm still waiting for a huge fight scene.
—Lisa
It was great. Even as an adult I loved it.
—Janette
