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Project 17 by Marie Faria Stolarz
Derik dreaded the idea of running his parents diner. There was only one way to get out of it, a competition he heard about. He would have to come up with a movie idea, produce it and send it in to the university. If he won, he could get a full ride scholarship. His idea was pretty straight forward; he would gather up some willing participants and go to the old abandoned Danvers State Hospital. It used to be a mental asylum, and was about to be torn down. In his mind, it was the foolproof project. There weren’t many people willing to go, but he found five others. They were probably the last people he would ever want to go with, all of them seemed just a tad odd. It was just six quirky teens, a video camera, and a night in a decrepit asylum. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: the asylum is supposedly haunted with tortured souls searching for those who had wronged them. What could possibly go wrong?
Apparently, a lot can go wrong. I almost decided to leave this book behind at the bookstore, but then saw the publisher –- Disney Hyperion. I had never read a bad book published by Disney Hyperion, until now, that is. This book was a major disappointment. I was really looking forward to a good haunting. Even though there were some scary moments, there was tons of cussing and suggestive moments. It could have been a lot better, and the ending was not fulfilling at all. I wouldn’t recommend this book. It was just felt kind of awkward and incomplete. I would not recommend this book.
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IQ is very unique, it has many entertaining aspects. IQ: Independence Hall has high tech gadgets, aliases, danger, death and espionage. This book followed Quest and his new step sister Angela Tucker as their lives turned from fun to frightening. Just as they had adjusted to life on the road with their parent’s band tour; Angela noticed that she was being followed. Their whole way of life unraveled when they discovered that their traveling RV mechanic (Boone) was a retired CIA operative and Angela’s mom, Malak, was alive. The problem with that was, Malak (a secret service agent) was declared dead years ago. Q and Angela were not the only ones who knew though, a huge terrorist cell knew; they weren’t going to rest until she was dead. They barely had enough time to grasp all this new information when an attempt on their lives was taken. Can they save her mom from the terrorists before it is too late? Or will they pay for her freedom with their lives?
Roland Smith has done a fantastic job at this realistic fiction book. Bravo is one word that comes to mind. It did a wonderful job of revealing terrorism in America without getting gory. However, the book is so realistic, that whenever Angela’s mom was mentioned (especially the way she died) I found myself reliving that awful morning, Tuesday September 11, 2001. Maybe it didn’t happen to you; maybe you didn’t see it on the news. For me however, the video was seemingly burned into my mind in slow motion. IQ is an excellent book (and I am looking forward to the sequel), but it is realistic fiction. If you were severely affected by terrorism or 9/11, maybe this isn’t the book for you. Or maybe it would be therapeutic to read about two teens fighting terrorism. This is for you to decide.
IQ: The White House
IQ: The White House hooks you with action and then blasts away like a rocket ship. It had more aliases more deception, and more secrets. It was bigger, better and more explosive, literally, stuff really explodes. Absolutely everything was dumped upside down and rearranged. Some pretty cool new characters came in to play. As always, one of the most fascinating things is how Roland Smith seamlessly engages political warfare and dynamics in the series. It appears so real, you feel like you might pick up the phone and ask the white house just what they plan to do with the huge ghost cell right under their noses. I waited over a year for this sequel and I am happy to say I was not disappointed
