ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 144 pp. Penguin Group. £8.99. (Ages 13 and up) ISBN 9780141182704 Rating: ? Stars This book is set in a future when animals are much cleverer than now. And because of their cleverness, the pigs started a revolution against the humans. Pigs could speak fluently in English unlike the other animals, and that gave them the power to be leaders. But, the story that follows only happened a few years after that... Their first leader, Old Major, was kind and fair who knew animals should be equal. But when Napoleon became the leader it was very unpleasant. He made a rule that allowed the pigs to have better food and that forced all of the other animals to work crazily hard every day and night. That wasn’t enough, Napoleon wanted more power. He decided to kill his brother, Snowball, so that he would be the only leader. Snowball was admired because he came up with a clever idea to build windmill. Sn...
Publisher: Hyperion
Pages: 336
From Goodreads: "Annie Fleet, master scuba diver and history buff, knows she can’t fight her nerd status as a freshman at her Los Angeles private school. And she doesn’t care—except for the fact that her crush, Josh, thinks she’s more adorable than desirable. Annie is determined to set him straight on their school trip to Mexico. But her teacher has other plans: he needs Annie to help him find Cortez’s lost-long treasure.
Suddenly, Annie finds herself scuba diving in pitch-black waters, jetting to Hawaii with Josh, and hunting for the priceless Golden Jaguar. But Annie and Josh aren’t the only ones lured by the possibility of finding the greatest treasure ever lost at sea. Someone else wants the gold—and needs Annie dead. In deeper danger than she ever imagined, can Annie get the boy and find the Jaguar, or is she in over her head?
Critically-acclaimed author Coert Voorhees delivers breathtaking romance and non-stop action in his newest novel, the spirited and captivating In Too Deep."
If the movies "Sahara" and "Fool's Gold" were to have a lovechild, this book would be it. While this should excite me, having thoroughly enjoyed both movies, I couldn't help but wish that this book was more. I thought that this book looked a bit too much like it's mother and father than I would have liked, not having any quirky or unique features- features that were truly it's own, that neither one of its parents could lay claim to.
Another aspect about this book I find myself conflicted about is how technical it was when referring to scuba diving. On the one hand, I appreciate that Coert didn't "dumb down" any of the content, as seems to be the norm in YA literature, however, on the other hand, I oftentimes found myself overwhelmed with all of the talk of o-rings, pressure gauges, and whatnot- at times entirely skimming over those parts.
That being said, I did really enjoy Annie's voice (though I did at times find it unbelievable that she was only fifteen years old, sounding much, much older than that)- something that is often unheard of for me when it comes to female characters. Furthermore, I did like the secondary characters of this book, Annie's best friends especially, as I thought that they helped to really balance out her somewhat serious/ overly mature demeanor.
All in all, despite my complaints, I do think that this is a perfect beach read, for both male and female readers (especially those who are fans of the aforementioned movies). Also, I do appreciate that this book could go both ways- either being a standalone or being the first in a series, all loose ends, but one (which has very little to any impact on the overall storyline), being tied together by the end of the novel.
Rating: 3/5
I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.
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