Interesting ( )

A good story set in a small English village with links dating back hundreds of years. Enough intrigue to keep a younger audience interested without a great deal of violence or danger to the young stars of the story. It reminded me of Enid Blyton books of many years ago. ( )

Posted to my Livejournal in January 2009:

The book jacket caught me on this one, both the cover and the description of the plot. And I liked the book, though I'm not exactly sure what the hell happened at every turn. I don't think authors should hit their readers over the head with What It All Means, but in this case, I needed the various mysteries to be tied together a little bit more. Twins Rachel and Adam are sent to stay in a tiny village in England with their grandmother while their parents divorce, and this village has a disturbing past which Rachel and Adam, because of their birth, seem destined to uncover for all to see. A preternatural young boy named Gabriel makes friends with the twins, but he has an agenda that is opposite of the villagers -- he wants to uncover the truth, they want to hide it. There's a three-sided blade called the triskellion, a chalk circle on a hill under which something important is buried, a TV crew angling to film an archeological dig of this hill, and villagers meeting in secret in the woods to do terrible things. Oh, and there are bees -- lots of bees. Sometimes, this really reminded me of The Wicker Man, but in a good way, not in a "Nicolas Cage running through through the woods like an idiot and falling into one incomprehensible plot hole after another" way. There's the whole bee thing, and the close-mouthed small town villagers with a dark secret, and the pagan rituals, and wow, this really is like The Wicker Man. Except this has an alien. I think. Like I said, I'm not sure what happened at the end. I wouldn't say this is an excellent read, because the writing was a little flat, but I did really find the mystery intriguing, and I liked the heavy, atmospheric mood, so if there is a second book like Amazon says there is, I'll read it . ( )

I read this whole book hoping it would get better and it never did. The premise was intriguing enough (especially with the author note at the end), but it felt forced, especially when the twins discover what they have in common with Gabriel. It was simply, "Oh! You're like us!" and then everyone accepts it and moves on. No questions asked. The ending was a bit too cookie-cutter also and the last sentence made me roll my eyes. All in all, I wasn't very impressed. ( )

American twins Rachel and Adam have been sent to stay with their grandmother in a little English village called Triskellion. They start having dreams and meet a rather mysterious boy, Gabriel. They slowly start to discover some of the secrets of the village and become friends with an archeologist who is digging under the local chalk circle. This is the sort of book that will have turning the pages to find out what will happen and what it all means but at the end many question are still unanswered. This is the first book in a trilogy so hopefully all will be revealed by the end however I think Peterson may have tried to cram too many different threads into this book - archeology, Celtic myths, aliens, bees and psychic bond between twins. ( )