The Missing by E.K. FrancesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
It took me a short while to understand what this book was about. I thought it was going to be about children being stolen off the streets on their way home or going to school, and so on. I was sure I was reading a thriller/detective story and the boy called Connor would be hidden somewhere. The kidnappers would demand a ransom or else he would be unfortunately sold to a gang of slavers etc. I was totally wrong and I was surprised to find it was a fantasy story aimed at teenage readers. So I attempted to read it with a view to telling my grandchildren about it later.
The main character, Connor, was quite likeable and obviously suffering from the recent loss of his mother. The way in which he entered into a fantasy world involving dragons and strange cannibalistic, Zombie-like men came across as unreal and difficult to believe. Not very surprising I suppose. Straight away I thought it was another story of the type where the central character awakes at the end wondering ‘was it real or just another dream?’ To a certain extent this meant for me it felt unoriginal for quite a way into the tale.
Its saving grace was that the story was fast moving and had enough twists and turns to keep the reader’s attention. Apart from Connor few of the other characters had much depth to them. Luckily Connor is in possession of a magic key given to him by his grandfather. This helps him to save the day and other children he finds in this strange fantasy world. It means we can find reasons to root for ‘the hero’ of the story. It was fairly scary for an early teenager I think, so I might recommend it to them in the end.
View all my reviews
RSS Feed
