Book Review: The 39 Clues Book Seven: The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis

The 39 Clues are a children's book series about Dan and Amy Cahill, a brother and sister team are battling their sometimes evil extended family on the quest for the 39 Clues. Whoever wins this scavenger hunt will be the most powerful person in the world, but the question seems to be, at what cost?

The seventh book in the 39 Clues series is The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis. This book, like the other books in the series, takes Dan and Amy to a far off place in search of vague clues, with their family members always on their tail. There is a lot of redundancy in all of these books, but things do get a bit more interesting in The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis.

In the first six books, members of the extended Cahill family make many attempts on Dan and Amy's lives, but in book six and seven, readers start to see that the family is not all bad. However, they are still trying to kill each other in The Viper's Nest, with the exception of Dan and Amy. Characters are finally starting to form less cliché personalities, which is a relief after the first few books in the 39 Clues series.

The Viper's Nest takes Amy and Dan Cahill to South Africa in search of clues left by Winston Churchill and Shaka Zulu. As is typical of the 39 Clues, real history mixes with fictional history to create a rather a mix of interesting and bland clues. The reason I say bland is because some of these clues are ridiculously far-fetched, but this is children's fiction, so we will not be too hard on Peter Lerangis.

Peter Lerangis does manage to create a few suspenseful moments that make the book readable. He also manages to continue the Amy and Dan fight and make up, family members are not to be trusted, but not all the time pattern of the previous books. Personally, I cannot say the pattern is holding up well after having been repeated in the past six books. I am hoping the last three 39 Clues books will change things up a bit. I am starting to feel like it is Groundhog Day, but with a different setting every time I pick up one of these books.

Shelly Barclay

No comments:

Post a Comment