John Connolly's "The Gates"

Hello,

Another book review:

The Gates by John Connolly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've finished this utterly charming and hilarious young adult novel. It's aimed at teenagers, using a snarky sense-of-humor to both educate and entertain. A kid will read this book and learn a lot and then realize that learning doesn't need to be painful. In this book the title refers to the gates of hell, but don't be frightened by that. There are daemons and the Great Malevolence, but there is very little fright. The fright there is is overcome by kids using their brains.

The writing is very tongue-in-cheek. People of all ages will love this book. I'm changing my mind a bit, maybe a kid should be at least 13 or 14 to read this book, someone able to differentiate between reality and fantasy. Although told with a tongue-in-cheek style, it still does talk about Hell, Satan and daemons.

The book started out strongly but finished a little less than strong. I would still highly reccomend it though. I think at least young teenagers would enjoy this book. I would suggest that parents read the book and then decide if their kid is ready to read it. I think my two oldest boys would like it. But I don't think my 9 year old daughter is quite ready, she was frightened by "Kazaam" for heck's sake!

View all my reviews >>

thebookaddict