Everyone Deserves Books: Book Review: The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis (The Seven Wonders #1)

So hello I'm back from Australia! Luckily I missed the massive haze that hit Singapore. Seriously, it cleared the day before I left Oz so I guess the winds are in my favour. Speaking of wind, JOHN EGBERT IS BACK DID YOU HEAR? Sorry. Pardon my Homestuck fangirling. I haven't been back for a while.

Title: The Colossus Rises (The Seven Wonders #1)
Author: Peter Lerangis
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Publication Date: February 5th 2013
Warnings: None, unless you have a fear or hatred to being spoken to as if you're stupid.

Synopsis:

One Boy

Jack McKinley is an ordinary kid with an extraordinary problem. In a few months, he’s going to die.

One Mission

Jack needs to find seven magic loculi that, when combined, have the power to cure him.

One Problem

The loculi are the relics of a lost civilization and haven’t been seen in thousands of years.

Seven Wonders

Because they’re hidden in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Review:

I read this book while on a golfing holiday. While being dragged on the holiday. I mean, my mum is trying to make my sister some kind of golf prodigy, and sure, fine. But she tries to wedge us in with the super golfing juniors by dragging us along on the golfing holiday specially organised for the best juniors in the whole academy (which, by the way, I am far from). My sister can fit in fine, because she's good with social stuff. But me? Not so much. Maybe that's why my need for distraction was so much that I actually finished this goddamn book.

So basically everyone seems to have made a huge deal about this book, since it seems to be sold EVERYWHERE in large quantities. So there's a review from Rick Riordan on the cover, and it's publicized to be "like Percy Jackson" kind of thing.

BUT.

There is a line between drawing inspirations and writing in the same genre, AND RIPPING OFF ENTIRELY. AND THIS BOOK CROSSED THAT LINE. IT MADE ME ANGRY.

VERY. VERY. ANGRY.

Alright. I need to calm down. So as a calming exercise, let's examine our characters.

Main protagonist: Jack.
Jack is a pretty flat character, with really little description of him given. He supposedly has a superpower, yet he has literally no power that is ever revealed in the course of the book. They give a really really lame excuse in the end. But no spoilers. He's a really great leader and he's really nice and has great ideas and *COUGH*Percy*COUGH*Jackson*COUGH*

Supporting cast:
Marco, Aly and Cass.
Marco: Strong, super athlete, super resourceful. Energetic, cheerful and cool.
Aly: Super smart, cool, awesome memory, movie nerd
Cass: Jittery, sweet, nervous, great memory
And all of them have like supernatural brain powers somehow?
Can we just discuss how these are all pretty cliched traits for companions/supporting cast? It's like the author took Annabeth and Grover, mixed them up and divided them. And as a whole none of them had much character development that made them....real? How do you say? I liked Aly's pink hair though.

Villain:
Right here is the problem. I read the entire book and I still have no clue what exactly it is the kids are fighting. I guess I would classify the Professor as a villain. I mean, I gave The maze Runner by James Dashner a sparkle on the point that his plot was thought through and that there were many layers of deception and manipulation between the main characters and the organization. But this book just took it too far. it literally reached a point where you're just like... I don't trust anything any more. There is no solid ground in this book. Every single thing they do turns out to have been a lie of some sort. It was just ridonkulous. hOnk.

Let's try summarizing it.

Kids: Oh i hate this place let's leave
Kids: Walks out of gate
Prof: Oops sorry no we let you escape so you could feel better
Kids: Oh ok *walks back*...*TURNS AROUND AND RUNS*
Prof: Oops sorry we totally knew you were gonna do that so we let you do that too. Now you can't escape muahahaha.
Kids: Fine. *goes back to room*
Prof: *goes to bed*
Kids: *Sneak out*
Prof: Zzzzzz
Kids: *made it out*
Kids: *get in trouble*
Prof: OHMYGOD Luckily we found you in time my cool bodyguard here noticed something so we could save you.
Prof: Now solve this mystery but I won't let you do anything after you solved the mystery.
Kids: Ok so we solved your mystery for you can we go
Prof: Oh sure go ahead
Kids: Hm I don't trust him let's sneak out later
Prof: HAAHAHAA i knew you were doing that! I knew where you were all along I have trackers!

Yeah, basically. It was frustrating. And ridiculous.

Okay I don't know where I was going with that.

And now the plot.

I think it rushed into the action far too quickly. And absence of Jack's father made Jack lack a grounding force in the story. So it was forced along and pushed Jack into the middle of the actions before the reader has even settled into the story and picked up the pace of it. Eventually a lot of action happened and I guess it was good enough for action scenes, though some parts were, again, ridiculous. You should read to find out.

The writing. The writing killed this book in my eyes. The end was fine, but the beginning. Firstly, the writing wasn't consistent. It started out in a certain way, then changed as the book progressed. But the beginning just made me want to kill myself. Totally. It was written very Diary of a Wimpy Kid level, with stuff like:

""&%*($!" I screamed. That means I can't tell you what I actually said."

I felt insulted. I'm sorry to the author, but if you are of a level to be reading this book, this level of trying to bend down to our level is way overextended. I know I'm actually way older than the intended audience for Percy Jackson and this book too, but Percy Jackson never made me feel like that. Ever.

Whoa so this review has turned out pretty long. I guess I'll sum up.

I actually didn't mind this book, because in the end it picked up and started the make sense. If it carries on this way, it might turn out okay. But the Percy Jackson similarities were too much for me. Honestly.