Pillage by Obert Skye - OPTIONAL

Skye, Obert Pillage, 352 pgs, Shadow Mountain;

Content~G

MS-OPTIONAL

Life for Beck Phillips has just gone from not so good to miserable. For the past several years he has been the primary caregiver for his mentally ill mother who has just passed away. Not minutes after her funeral he is put on a train and told that his uncle, who he didn’t know existed, has agreed to take him in. The train takes him to a remote town called Kingsplot. Beck’s uncle lives in a mansion high on a hill away from the town. He is greeted by the few servants that are still employed by his uncle. There is almost no furniture in the large drafty mansion and Beck wonders what he has been thrown into. Immediately he is sent to school and weird things begin to happen both at home and at school.

In a break from his popular Leven Thumps series, Skye brings readers a story reminiscent of a fairytale. The plot is slow and the reader must persist through many pages of set-up until any action begins. Inserted at the beginning of each chapter is a teaser from a long lost journal that helps to move the story along and keep the reader trying to guess the importance of the inserted selections. Overall, this book is a good choice for avid readers, but would not hold the attention of most readers. The audiobook for this title is not recommended. The reader’s voice is monotone and does little to engage the reader.

Allison Madsen~Teen Librarian-SJO Public Librarian