I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PEPPER RABBIT-“Alison” (2011).

Pepper Rabbit had NPR’s Song of the Day on September 19th.  “Alison” opens with a kind of circus organ pumping out a steady, thumping beat.  The beat continues until the quieter stated chorus: “You will know my name.”  The song is, as circuses are, light and bouncy with an air of the sinister floating all around it.  By the second chorus, we learn that “it’s all a game to get you to learn my name.”

The vocals are done in a kind of 70’s piano pop style–a bit high-pitched, a bit echoey– and they help to obscure exactly what’s going on.  But it’s the music that is so charming. 

Even if it’s unclear to me what the intention of the song is (stalker or just lost love) it’s a poppy ditty that will keep your toe tapping.  I’m looking forward to hearing more from them. 

[READ: September 14, 2011] Into the Gauntlet

And so the series ends. 

Or, actually, it doesn’t.  This isn’t really a spoiler because there are more books out in the series.  And I’m not going to say what happens at the end of this book, but for those of you wondering just what the heck is going on here with a Book Eleven coming out eight months after Book Ten, I’ll summarize (with no spoilers).  Book Ten ends the hunt for the clues–the goal is reached.  But at the end of the book, it is revealed that there’s another group, another family, who is also hunting for the Answer.  They hadn’t been hunting alongside the Cahill families, they were apparently watching alongside them waiting to see what would happen before setting their plan into action.  And thus….  Series Two.  

Book 11 is a kind of transitional book that fills in some back story on each of the families and shows Grace’s life.  I’m intrigued to read it, especially since most of the writers from the series contribute to it.

So Book Ten was written by the excellent author Margaret Peterson Haddix.  And this book comes in at 326 pages (over 100 pages longer than any other book in the series).  But Haddix earns her extra pages.  She totally breaks with the set-up of the series so far by following not just Dan and Amy but all of the branches of the family.  We actually get into the heads of all of the competitors (including Eisenhower Holt–who has feelings after all, Natalie Kabra–who is not quite as dim as she appears, and Ian Kabra–who might just be as evil as his mom).  Haddix also introduces a huge surprise in the beginning of the book–a surprise that may not have been such a surprise if I’d been reading the books close together but with this much remove from the early books, I was shocked!  And later on, when she doubles up on the surprise, it’s even more shocking!

And so we have several groups all converging on Shakespeare’s birthplace.   Because Dan has saved a clue in which the final line is Shakespeare was b_____ here.  So naturally, they head to (repeat after me): Stratford-upon-Avon.  But the weird thing is that none of the other teams are there.  None.  How did Dan and Amy trump everyone else so well, and why is it that they can’t find any clues there?

Suffice it to say that they misunderstood the clue, but not terribly.  And when they arrive at their next location and see everyone else waiting for them, they know they’ve hit onto something.  But everyone is acting very strangely at the clue site.  The families are all there but they are being quiet and calm, they defer to Amy and Dan as they scan the room for clues.  Eventually, everyone leaves the room to Dan and Amy, assuming that they will find the clue (and that the other families will then “share” it from them). 

This clue leads to another which leads to their eventual destination: the Madrigal stronghold.  And soon enough all of the families (except for one or two players) are present at the stronghold.  And from here, the story changes from a globetrotting epic adventure to one of close quarters, attempts at teamwork (!) and a whole lot of real danger.  It also shows that Isabel Kabra is definitely as evil as we feared.  It felt a little drawn out–the way you think an action movie is over but they throw in one more danger for good measure; however, it was so well written that I enjoyed all of it.

From this point on I’d be risking spoilers if I were to reveal anything, so suffice it to say that the last hundred or so pages deal very closely with the final clue.  And there are surprises, twists, and massive dangers galore.

The ending, as I said, is cathartic and Dan and Amy are encouraged to rest, so that’s what I’m going to do from this series.  Book 11 is already out, as is Book 12 (which is really Book 1 of the second series), but book 2 of series 2 is due out in time for Christmas this year, and that seems as good a time as any to pick up on the Cahill story line.