Review: Has Great Potential
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 8, 2014
4 years after The Catchers took her siblings Eden White is locked away in her parents’ attic with a boy named Will. A boy she hardly knew.Eden is unsure whether she is locked away to protect her from the catchers or if she is just too much of a painful reminder of the loss her parents have suffered.Determined not to be a prisoner for the rest of her life she escapes to the forest. Will is against the idea, he feels they should look for food and head home.The temptation of freedom proves to powerful for both.Unfortunately, The Catchers are not that far behind.Eden wakes to find herself on an island akin to Alcatraz.Surrounded by hundreds of stolen children and enrolled into the school Eden is conflicted. Should she welcome this opportunity or fight?While making new friends and allies she begins to realise that all is not as it seems, the outcome could potentially cost and her new friends their lives.This story has a great concept but found it lacking in pace. At times I was struggling to find the point to certain scenes. Leaving many unanswered questions.After the escape from the attic I was relieved to find that the story began to develop.Will and Eden are good strong characters and I would have loved to learn more about them, what I struggled with is their relationship. They can seem incredibly close, then in other scenes they are more like strangers, I wasn’t sure whether this was deliberate.The descriptive of the island is done incredibly well making it easy for me to imagine Eden’s new surroundings.I loved the idea of a haven for children with a sinister side and this has potential to develop into a series full of fantasy and action but the scenes with the dead goats felt a little rushed and just thrown in for potential scare factor.I really wanted to enjoy this book it could have been a fantastic start, I have high hopes for this series but just wasn’t to my taste.