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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Review: Traitor's Son by Hilari Bell

Traitor's Son by Hilari Bell. Book 2 of The Raven Duet.

Traitor's Son by Hilari Bell

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: March 2012
List Price: $16.99
ISBN-13: 9780547196213

Review: Bees, otters, and hawks oh my! Imagine standing just standing next to your car waiting for your client, like any other day. when out of nowhere gunshots and the roar of motorcycles come in to range, immediately you think drug gang, and a girl tosses you a medicine pouch from over the 12 foot fence, only spurring on your suspicions. As soon as it is over and you're on the road with your client, a swarm of bees follows you, and just to make it weirder why don't we make sure they emit flashes of light when they explode? In Traitor's Son, book 2 of the Raven Duet, by Hilari Bell, for Jase Mintok that is just the start of it.

It all started when he was three, when a raging war broke out between his grandfather and dad, over the three sixteenths native that is Jase. Now his world is turned upside down when a girl gives him a medicine pouch with what appears to be not a drug, but instead appears to be dirt, and after coming in contact with the pouch he starts having dreams of an old woman. Also, he is confronted by a girl his age named Raven, who claims to come from a different dimension, and insists to him that magic is real. Oh and did I mention that she can actually shape shift into a raven, and that he now has to help her heal the Earth? After countlessly discarding that magic is real he finally gives, but only because Raven has now hexed his Tesla, and he ends up healing the taiga, as well as leaning that they also have to heal Earth from the air and sea. At night Jase dreams once again of the old lady but this time she is furious at him and pits him against an Olmaat, a monster from Ananut culture, in a very real dream. But then the Otter woman, who Jase now knows is Raven's enemy, goes too far by kidnapping his grandmother Gima in the shadow world, since she is not allowed to harm him directly. At which time Jase and the Otter woman strike a bargain: all of the dust in his possession for his grandmother, but she doesn't hold up her end, and once Raven heeds word of this she became furious at Jase. Will Jase ever be able to save Gilma and the Earth, and if so at what cost?

Traitor's Son is a miraculous book that will mesmerize anyone with its ecological theme and with its twist of magic. Hilari has done what many wish to achieve to create a book that takes readers to another place, from the taiga, full of "glossy black dragonflies, and a few iridescent blue ones," to the shadow world, full of hook-flowers, and to that simply of 2098. Also, it captures the thoughts a 16 year old boy would have no matter how inappropriate they may be. All in all, Traitor's Son, by Hilari Bell, is a miraculous and mesmerizing book that will keep you on the edge of your seat an deserves 5out of 5 stars.

Review written by Matthew (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of Traitor's Son for this review.

Have you read Traitor's Son? How would you rate it?

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