Review: 2 1/2 Stars
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2010
Plot/Storyline: 2 StarsThe novel started with a storline that was reminiscent of modern day Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. Unfortunately, that small similarity of teens building their own society is pretty much it for likeness.The premise is faulty from the beginning. A bunch of young kids are camping. I'm not certain of the youngest, but the oldest camper is seventeen. I know at least one is as young as thirteen. Then, when communication is cut off with the outside world, five of the six counselors leave the sixth and youngest counselor, a twenty-year old alone with all those teenagers. I cannot imagine any adults making such a decision.Then, out of all those kids and the one counselor, only one teen decides to try to find out what happened. I would have thought several would have wanted to hike down the mountain to find some adults, but the rest almost immediately start deciding what to do about winter, just assuming they will be there still.Any sense of suspense is ruined constantly by little remarks thrown in referring to things way into the future. The author seemed intent on making sure the reader knew that the kids would never be `rescued' from the very beginning. The kids certainly don't seem very concerned about being rescued with all of them willing to pretty much blindly follow one of the youngest boys in the group.The plot has very little to do with the fog or its origins. It simply focused completely on these kids creating a little society of their own. I will say that it was obvious that a lot of thought and planning went into the storyline. But, the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.Character Development: 1 StarThe characters were flat and lifeless. The author was disinclined to give any back story on the main characters, so the reader must draw their own conclusions as to the kids' personalities and how they came to be.Writing Style: 2 StarsWhereas the subject matter may not be appropriate for young teens, the writing style was of that type of simplicity. Not only was the sentence structure coarse and unrefined, but the flow came in staccato bursts that was just exhausting to read. The time flow explanations were confusing, too.The descriptions were so sparse that I could not picture a character or a scene during the entire novel. The dialogue was decent in some places, but mostly stilted and uninteresting.Editing/Formatting: 4 1/2 StarsThere were a few editing errors throughout, but not enough to be a big issue. The formatting was of professional quality.Rating: PG-17 for Violence, Rape, and Adult Situations