*DNF AT APPROXIMATELY 140 PAGES*

Maybe Christine Brodien-Jones's writing and stories just aren't my thing. I read The Owl Keeper a few years ago and was not impressed. I felt the same thing with this book. I thought the plot was better in this book than in The Owl Keeper, though this is probably due to my love of time-travel and alternate dimensions. But I did have a lot of questions concerning it. Sure, there were some explanations for things, but you know how sometimes you're left there thinking, "That doesn't actually make sense to me."? Yeah.
Our main characters, Zoe and Ian, are pretty unbelievable little buggers. Actually, most of the characters were. They sort of read like fake automatons to me.This mostly had to do with their absurd reactions to things; the exact opposite reaction of what any normal human being would do in the same situation.

Zoe & Ian: We're 11, and the owner of this tea shop has a third eye and looks suitably scary through this piece of blue glass and also we narrowly avoided her attack on us. We'll be visiting this tea shop again, I think.

Me: GAH NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING

Hands down, my favorite part of the book was the atmosphere and the setting; Tenby, a small village in Wales. And honestly, the descriptions of the village were the best written part of the book too. Oh, and I really did appreciate the friendship between the cousins. But even with that bright spot, I really don't hold out much hope for The Scorpions of Zahir.

I like owls probably more than the next person but I did not like this book. The characters were kinda unrealistic, the plot I found to be inane, and I was bored. Not to mention that everything was capitalized. (Absolute Dark, OwlSong, Owl Keeper, High Echelon, Frozen Zone etc..) Max is supposedly allergic to sun particles and thus sneaks out at night and visits his silver owl, which he is apparently in love with, and by all rights should be extinct. Only the Owl Keeper will unite the silver owls against the evil government and the dark. Things are not as they might seem about Max. Genetic experiments may or may not have a small part. Oh, and lies. Lots of lies told to Max and the world in general.

2.5 stars

Maxwell Unger is a boy trapped in his house all day long with a creepy caretaker. He cannot go outside and play. He cannot go to school. In fact, he never is allowed anywhere because he has a rare disease. If any sunlight touches him, he'll die. The world is a bleak and gloomy place. The High Echelon, greedy and grasping, tried to control the weather and ended up causing a mini-apocolypse in the year 2066. Their experiments ended up shifting the earth's axis, altering tides and magnetic fields, triggering massive explosions in the atmosphere and blowing up nearby planets. Plagues were rampant, much of the earth's flora and fauna went extinct and thousands perished. This only solidified the Echelon's control over the populace and soon all history was rewritten. Life became a colourless, drab existence. No books, no stories, no fun. Work, work, duty and government approved entertainment. Your basic totalitarian government and dystopian society. But with a twist. We have Silver Owls and Sages on one side and on the other the evil society of Alzarin Oro. There are prophecies and Night Seers, Dark Brigadiers, skraeks. As well as a stubborn runaway girl named Artemis Rose. Together, she and Max have to help fulfill an ancient prophecy.

It is an interesting story, but it took me a long time to warm up to the two main characters, events were extremely coincidental, (always at the right place to hear some crucial plot point, something would always show up just when needed) and I do not care for it when things are too easy. No clear resolution to the overall conflict, so it requires a sequel, though the story could likely have been told in a stand-alone offering. The tone is very middle-grade and occasionally the two MCs, both 11 -going-on-12, sounded way younger.

With only memories of his Gran, small treasures that were sneaked past Mrs.Cumlin's inspections, Maxwell Unger lives through the night and dark of the High Echelon's world. Getting monthly injections of grotesque liquid was a result of Max's allergy to "sun particles." The stories of silver owls and Silver Prophecies are practically forbidden to speak. So is Max's Gran's death. With the slow deterioration of his memory, Max tries to visit his owl tree and his silver owl every night. One night he finds a girl under his tree. A peculiar one, at that; raggedy clothes, wild dirty hair, and as thin as a chopstick. Crowding an aggressive attitude, Artemis Rose Eccles is like no one Max had ever met before. Speaking almost a foreign language, Rose endears Max with her crazy antics of the liars in the High Echelon. When the slow realization of the truth of Rose's remarks grows to be too much for Max, a slew of adventures and a final journey to the Frozen Zone are the only solutions that sought to defeat the impending Darkness sweeping the land. Will the end result be what Max and Rose were hoping for all along, or will there be too many near-death experiences to get to their destination in time?


The Owl Keeper is the mesmerizing tale of a young, weak boy that blooms into a brave and powerful Night Seer, with the help of Rose--his best friend, his silver owl and some memories of Gran and a better time. Reading through the best friends' adventures in the gloominess of High Echelon territory was entertaining and kept you interested till that final journey to find the Owl Keeper. Reading about all of the crafted, ugly-looking creatures in The Owl Keeper was intricately satisfying because of its detail. Rose and Max learn to appreciate each other in more ways than one; and upon that a very unique friendship. With a poem of a prophecy hanging over there heads, the pair try to break down its meaning in order to end at their desired destination. Through their fantastic views of the forests and chilling woods, you will keep wondering in your mind what will happen next, and will they get through this.
The Owl Keeper was set in Max's point of view of the situations around him, but with one switch I believe that the author could have made this book great in any--and I do mean any, even little Miranda's point of view. However, since I don't ordinarily read MG books, it took me a while to really get into the story. With other readers or frequenters of MG novels, this most likely may not happen; if you don't frequent MG novels, you might experience a little difficulty in the beginning, all there is to do is wait for the good parts, because they are there! Brodien truly knows what she's doing with the her characters, the only mishap is that she needs to work a bit on the magic storytelling. From time to time, the pace and some details of the story made me question the authors choice for choosing such a young male lead. However, I do believe that may be a bit biased since I used to young adult novels. In the end, Max really showed the side of his childishness and bravery all in one. The Owl Keeper really is an enchanted, mystical read that you won't want to miss. I'd love to know what happens to Max after the last page.

Grade: B

The Owl Keeper is a non-stop, action packed ball of awesomeness. Based on the novel's summary, I figured I was in for a tale just about a boy and owls. Thought there also might be a little fantasy sprinkled in to keep things going. Wrong. Christine Brodien-Jones carefully mixes in hints of dystopian, mystery, adventure, and fantasy to create hands down the best novel aimed at younger teens that I have read since the Harry Potter series.To say the least, Christine Brodien-Jones and The Owl Keeper blew my socks off. Brodien-Jones' keeps her writing is simplistic and the action flowing. For me, that worked out really well. The novel did not require me to puzzle over certain situations or wonder what did the author want me to get out of this passage. This means that I was allowed to enjoy the novel just for what it was.The action in this novel is top notched. I was glued to the book as action sequence after action sequence occurred. I was amazed that Brodien-Jones could use so much action and not make it seem repetitive or too over the top. The whole novel just flowed together so nicely as the reader uncovers all the little secrets in Max's world. And the world that Max inhabits is very intriguing. Brodien-Jones has created a very dystopian feeling world that has a nice science fiction and fantasy feel to it. The world is quite different from our world, but not so much so that the author needed to go into long, drawn out explanations about how and why things are they way they are. The author does this in a nice short paragraph and focuses mainly on plot and character development.The characters of Max and Rose are a wonderful combination for the world that Brodien-Jones has created. True, I did like Rose a little more over Max. But this is because Rose is the kind of character that one cannot ignore. She is spunky, full of life, and very impulsive. As the novel moved along, I did find myself liking Max more and more as he grew into his own skin. His character is all about growth, and by the end of novel, he is a completely changed character... just the way it should be. In addition to Max and Rose, owls, and specifically Max's owl, play into a large portion of this novel. One must admire Brodien-Jones' attention to detail. She has captured every detail from the owl's habits down to its personality. The owls added lots of depth and definition to Max's world, and made the novel a lot more fun to read.For me, Brodien-Jones has hit the ball out of the park with this novel. From the amazing depth of her characters to the non-stop action, this novel was a blast. The novel's ending does set the reader up for a sequel, or possibly even this being the first novel in a series, so I am really hopeful that I will get to see more of Max, Rose, and the owls. While girls will throughly enjoy this novel, I think this may be a wonderful novel to give to a young male teen who has been struggling to find a novel to read. The action and adventure in this novel will be sure to captivate and inspire anyone's imagination.