Reviews

like okay i was rocking with homegirl but i felt she really lost me with this one. like we have DERAILED THE FUCK OFF THE PATH! what was meant to be a series around returning missing kids to history featured NO RETURN OF MISSING KIDS IN THIS ONE! in fact it was just jonah impersonating a kid. i feel like I could not get behind the adventuring bc I was so always playing catch up, being shaken around seconds antics like these damn kids. and I don't even know what seconds objective is??? like I feel that was not clear enough to me such that I may be able to root for or against him. so I'm stuck just being like okay he's fucking w the children to what end. and then it ended and they all got saved and they went back only for homeboy to not be able to get to andrea who is an ANNOYING GIRL and for Katherine to have almost died and for them to have to go on another trauma trip sometime soon. like we were having an enjoyable time until folks started LITERALLY DYING IN THIS ONE??????

i did appreciate, though, that this one had a piece of history I had really never ever really heard about which provided me with a nice little rabbit hole to go down. i recognize in the authors note credits section she was essentially like I felt like I could take more freedom with histories story in this one and I'm like I wonder girl if u should maybe take less freedom with history next time. like history is history for a reason. idk idk idk idk call me a hater girl I still had fun. like I still had a lot of fun. its just it was a whole hell of a lot going on and to what end. who knows. but like 3 stars even. maybe 2.75 if I'm being a hater girl.

thorspoptarts's review

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adventurous informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

mckinlay's review

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3.0

fast paced. lots of action.

zbookandtea's review

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2.0

This book was okay. It was really slow at some parts in it and hard to pick up and read. It is very unclear to me if Margaret Peterson Haddix will write another book, but I hope she will.
Favorite Character: Jonah's sister

directorpurry's review against another edition

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adventurous informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

neilrcoulter's review

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4.0

Another good entry in Margaret Peterson Haddix's Missing series. Haddix is a great storyteller, and one of the things I like most about this series is her skill in introducing new twists in a natural, organic way. Each book in this series has upped the stakes just a little bit, by introducing new characters, conspiracies, or challenges for Jonah and Katherine. In a lot of stories, this constant upping of the game feels artificial, but Haddix is good at constructing series in which each new challenge makes sense within the world she has created. This is only the halfway point in the Missing series, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what further twists and turns she has in store as the series continues.

The focus of Torn is explorer Henry Hudson and his son, John. I didn't know much about their final voyage, so the historical information was all new, and interesting, to me. Jonah has a new challenge in this story, and time itself is unraveling, so no one is quite sure how the events are supposed to proceed. Though there are some father/son issues in the book, I felt that the emotional effect of that relationship was not quite as poignant as in the previous book's relationship between Virginia Dare and her grandfather. Also, I really couldn't believe that it took Jonah and Katherine so long to figure out that

Spoiler

Prickett was actually Second

. I mean, really. That should have been obvious to them much earlier.

Even with those flaws, however, I enjoyed Torn very much, and went right into the next book, Caught, as soon as I finished Torn. This is a really fine series, and I recommend it for upper-elementary ages and older.

leslie_ann's review

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3.0

This book was very mid. She’s trying to move the plot along, but I’m not even sure how this offered any insight into the characters, or plot. From what I see right now, it was a very “filler episode” type of book in the series. Perhaps it will become significant later on, but honestly, I didn’t see much of a need for it.

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