What do You think about The Riddles Of Epsilon (2006)?
The Riddles of Epsilon by Christine Morton-Shaw is about a girl named Jess. Her family has moved to an island called Lume. To her, it seems boring and dead. But when she discovers a cottage near the beach, she starts to wonder. In the cottage, she finds antique items that were, in her mind, as old as the world. She wanders around the house and discovers letters that belonged to a boy named Sebastian. Through the days that she’s reading them, a man or ghost-like being appears called Epsilon. Soon she fears what she has gotten herself into. During some time on the island, Epsilon gives Jess a series of riddles she must solve. As Jess tries to solve the riddles, something strange happens to her family. Her father isn’t around enough because there is a mysterious black swan that is lurking around, and her mother seems distant. Every night, Jess’ mother walks done to the beach and gathers seashells. She would bring them back home, and would dump them on the table and search for something. She’s not quite sure what it is, but she looks on. When things start to unravel, things start to become a little hectic. Jess must solve these riddles before something happens to her mother. One night, while Jess was in the library; she notices something that is similar to what is happening to her mother and what had happened to Sebastian’s mother. They both did the same thing. They both went down to the beach and searched and brought back seashells. They both were looking for the same thing, but what? Days pass and Jess is running out of time. She figures out that the mysterious black swans are the Dark Ones who are after the same thing her mother is. Then, she figures it all out. She heads down to a cave only to find her mother and the remains of what seemed to be Sebastian's mother. She runs to her mother and then a ginormous black swans glides down from the top of the cave. The swan transforms into a beautiful woman who soons turns out to be one of the Dark Ones. Then a bright light appears and it's someone who Epsilon has talked about. The woman and the light being battle while Jess and her mother escape. Minutes later, only one survives. The light being. When Jess finally thinks it's over, someone reveals to her that Sebastian's mother was her sister and the crazy smelly old woman was related to her. Level 3 question: Why did Epsilon choose Jess to finish what Sebatian had not finished?
—Lynette Herr
I read this book about 5 years ago and I loved it to bits. Now, being a little older, the flaws were a bit more obvious. First and foremost was the writing style. It is written like a diary, which gives it a little freedom in the perfect grammar and focal point departments, but Jess, the main character, started out sounding a bit too much like your average, stereotypical, sulky, "can't stand my parents" teen; like the author was trying too hard. The impression faded about halfway through the book, thank goodness.A major plot point was not knowing who to trust. I would like to know a bit more about the Light and Dark ones, what they actually are, and what they do. They had a bit of a religious undertone and it would have been nice to see how they actually effected their universe not just "Dark Ones are bad and Light Ones are good". It's all fine and good to say that the Dark Ones cause chaos, but is that chaos war? Or possession? Or maybe they take over the government? It would have made the story a little bit more interesting.The other thing is a matter of preference; I love riddles and could read them all day, but it can make for a slow book if they aren't your thing. The action doesn't really start until maybe 150 pages in, but those first 150 are important set up, that I personally enjoyed. I liked how the history came together, the feeling of discovery as all the little jigsaw pieces fall into place, but the end just felt surreal, but I can't go into that without giving stuff away. Even after finishing the book, it feels a bit dream-like; I guess that would be how it would have felt to the characters too.Anyway, it basically boils down to, if you like riddle stories and you don't mind stereotypical teenage girls, read this book. It really is a good story.
—Katie
I was surprised by how suspenseful this was - it was full of creepiness, like leave the lights on, look over your shoulder eerie. I thought the story was pretty good, and the code the protagonist, Jessica, had to decipher was a nice touch, but the climax felt a little too easy, and the last couple chapters following it seemed unnecessary. The epilogue felt a bit tacked on, like the author had some new idea and just had to add it in whether it made sense or not. The same riddles and clues were repeated in nearly every chapter, and that got quite tedious. It's written in a pseudo-diary style, but I think it would have worked better if that had been dropped, because it didn't seem diary-like at all, really - it tried to be, but it came off inconsistent, and when you really think about it, the way the entries are formatted didn't make much sense if you take into consideration that she would be writing them at the most inopportune moments - she finds out she must desperately search for someone with no time to lose, but wait, let's write an entry about it first; she meets the Big Baddie, does something wrong, but still has time to write an entry before possible Impending Doom five seconds later. Overall, I know I'm pointing out all the flaws I found there to be, but I actually did really enjoy it and found it hard to put down - the suspense really is good, and it seemed well-thought out for the most part, it's just not perfect, especially if you look closely.
—Jessica
