Review: Engaging plot with interesting characters
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2011
Tommy looks forward to a horror movie marathon overnight at his friend's house, a Cambodian refugee named Vince. But with his parents away for the weekend, Vince has more adventurous plans...winter camping a mile from a state park's entrance.Their night in their homemade igloo is interrupted when the boys bring in a near-death man with a colorful past. Their night of freedom turns out to be one of captivity as their igloo guest has a different plan for the evening. Will the boys get back to civilization unharmed?The beginning questions interspersed through the chapters ask the reader a repeating moral question in different scenarios. The questions get more difficult as the book goes on and it was neat to see how he incorporated these seamlessly in the rest of the book.I don't want to give any plot spoilers, but I could suspend my disbelief a few times in the book. I think the plot was well thought out and mostly plausible. Almost at the very end of the book, I did think "They got there already??" because the original trip made it sound much longer. But overall, the characters were believable and multi-dimensional, the plot was complex, and the writing was smooth. I enjoyed this story a great deal and I'm sure some young adult, especially male, readers would love this book too.