Judy Q. reviewed on 11/5/2014 + 5 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

A friend of mine was surprised I never read this as a kid so I went back to read it as an adult. To be fair, adults are not the intended audience so my review may not be the best to judge whether kids will like it. I remember what I liked as a young adult, however, and I think this book would have been as painful to me then as it was to me now. I really wanted to like it, because I love ancient Egypt, I love suspense and the premise seemed promising. However, there was something unnerving about the whole thing that make it difficult to get through (in fact I kept putting it down, reading other things and then going back to it). The characters were not overly like-able and there wasn't much info to go on that made them interesting except maybe for April who you could tell was struggling with her mother really not wanting her. The pace was also painfully slow, with the occasional hint that something could happen but then, nope, nothing yet for another five chapters. The joy of the kids imaginative game was also made downright unnerving with the lurking of a child serial murderer in the neighborhood, which nowhere in the description does it suggest this book is about. I suppose that's maybe what the author wanted, to throw in that element of scary and mystery, but it's sort of deceiving for a kids novel to make it sound like it's about kids playing a mysterious game and then BAM throw in a child murderer. I don't know, it just didn't sit right with me.

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