Book Review: The Cloak Society, Book 1By: Jackson Page-RothDecember 1, 2014The main conflict in The Cloak Society is a big battle between Cloak and the Rangers of Justice. The origins of the conflict were that 10 years ago there was a big battle between Cloak and the Rangers and all but four Cloaks died. The internal conflict was Alex battling with his own beliefs. Since he is a 4th generation Cloak, Alex has a lot to live up to. The external conflict was the battle between the Cloaks and the Rangers. The main character is Alex. He works for what he believes in. But then he lost faith in his beliefs. The characters that learned the hardest lessons in the book were Alex and Kirby. The lesson Alex learned was that you can't just follow people blindly. The lesson that Kirby learned was that you can even be friends with your enemies. Alex and his team (the Betas) are going on a mission for Alex's birthday to steal a rare diamond when the Junior Rangers show up and they almost foil Cloak's plans. Alex saves one of the Young Rangers, a girl named Kirbie, and gets kicked off the Beta team temporarily. The Cloaks decide to attack the Rangers in a couple of months and Alex is scheduled to fight Kirbie one-on-one but before the battle, Kirbie turns Alex to the Rangers. Then Alex ends up defending the Rangers and fighting his own family, but the Rangers almost get wiped out anyway. The most important part of the plot was when Alex abandoned the Cloak and had to face his family to defend the city. It was important because Alex abandoning Cloak flipped the entire story upside down. The message I took from this book was to have confidence in my beliefs. If Alex had not had confidence, the whole world would have been dominated by the Cloaks. Alex had to learn to stand up for his own beliefs and not just follow what others said. The theme of the book reminded me of the slogan "if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump too?" This passage from the Cloak Society gives you a feeling of tension and suspense: “There was some movement in the near darkness, and Alex sensed there was something lurking, watching them as they passed. All around him, barely audible over the rush of air, he swore he could hear animals howling. And something else was odd, too. Something inside of him. It felt as though all his strength was being sucked away, consumed by the Gloom.”This book was amazing, and I highly recommend it for people that love mystery, suspense, fantasy, and adventure. I cant wait to read the next two in the series. Thoughts on the Overall Book: I'm not the biggest fan of superhero stories, but well, when it comes to the villains, everyone loves a good villain and I really liked the premise of the story featuring a young supervillain in training who has some moral issues with the people he's siding with.Cover--Yea or Nay: The cover is cool-looking and will likely catch kids, especially young boys' attention (it caught my younger brother's) but I don't care for how Alex is portrayed. The title emblem is my favorite part of it.Characters: Alex was a likable protagonist, his struggle was understandable, having to choose between what he felt was the right thing to do, and going against his family and friends. I liked how he also didn't decide right away either, he actually thought about it, and you kind of get both sides of the story, seeing why the villains did what they did and why they want revenge on the superheroes. We didn't get to know a lot of his friends as much as I wanted to. I think I would have really liked Mallory if I had gotten to know her better. Same with Gage. I did really like Misty, but her character was more defined. I really liked Kerbie though, she actually reminded me a lot of Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series, and I liked that she was sensible, was willing to give Alex the benefit of a doubt and yet wasn't entirely willing to trust him at first. As for Alex's parents, while we don't get to know his dad a lot, his mom, Shade, was actually kind of scary. She seemed just really power-hungry, bent on revenge, and what made her even more frightening was that she wasn't entirely against getting Alex hurt for the sake of their cause. Pretty much your typical supervillain.The Romance: There isn't any.Writing Style: Third person, past tense. For the most part it was okay, but there were a few wonky POV shifts on occasion that kind of stopped me for a moment with the flow. Apart from that, it's not horrible, and though not the best writing ever (more action-movie style, which is fine and pretty much expected with this kind of story) it wasn't bad to read and perfectly okay for a middle-grade book. I liked the premise of the story, and for a debut novel I think it wasn't bad. Could have used a little more characterization here and there with some of the minor characters (another thing that made it read more like a movie) but apart from that, I think it leaves room for improvement.Accuracy/ Believability: Not really applicable. But I think the story behind everything, and everyone's motives made sense, so that's all that really matters in books like this.Problems/What bothered me: The only thing that really bothered me was that I was a little confused about the Gloom. I would have liked to know more about that and where it came from. But maybe we'll get to learn that in the next book.Conclusion: 3 stars. I enjoyed, it's a quick and entertaining read. Maybe not quite as entertaining as I had hoped, but I did like it. It ended on a rather abrupt cliff-hanger, but I can't really take off marks for that either.Recommended Audience: Guy read, 10 and up, I'd say readers of Percy Jackson would probably enjoy this.
What do You think about The Cloak Society (2012)?
Greatest book yet!
—Jj
I love how the villian fell in love with the girl and changed his way.
—kishi1005
What a fun book! I totally enjoyable read!
—booklover123
