Trapped by S.A. Bodeen

From Goodreads, 

"It's up to Sarah Robinson to save her shipwrecked family from a time-traveling "curator" of souls and a treasure-hunting criminal in Book 3 of the Shipwreck Island series.

Sarah Robinson and her family are shipwrecked on a remote and mysterious island. Their food is scarce and there's no sign of rescue. They have seen strange creatures, rescued a mysterious girl, and found The Curator, who has captured Sarah's father and stepbrother to use in a bizarre time-travel experiment. And then the only man who knows about the island comes back--he's looking for buried treasure and won't leave without it, even if it means leaving the Robinsons stranded. Sarah knows an important key to finding the treasure, but will she keep it a secret?"

Goodreads - Trapped

We are back with the third book in this series!  I've enjoyed all of these extremely quick reads.  And I'm extremely excited to get the final book from the library at school and get it read. 

Trapped follows the first two books, Shipwreck Island and Lost.  Sarah and Marco have gone to find Sarah's dad and Marco's younger brother.  The end up meeting the Curator of the island who happens to be an alien.  After showing them scenes of his planet and what happened, Sarah and Marco decide to try to help him to save their family and his planet.  The Curator, named Leo, explains why there are strange creatures everywhere.  He is looking for something called a progenitor and explains that it had been traced back to the island.  Marco soon realizes that the progenitor is in a trunk he pulled off the ship they were on in the first book.  They try to hurry to get the progenitor, but a man named Fox appears at the island.  Fox has been searching for "his" treasure and will do anything it takes to get it.  The book ends as all of the kids race to save each other and their families. 

I enjoyed the sci-fi twists that happened in this book.  There were hints at the sci-fi storyline in the second book, but this one really ramped everything up as we were introduced to Leo who is from another planet.  I love that he was able to show Marco and Sarah everything that had happened that led his people to flee their planet.  The entire alien plotline was completely unexpected, but also really exciting to see how Bodeen weaved it into this story of survival.  I think she also did a great job of subtlety bringing in the fact that our planet will eventually reach a point where there is no return.  Leo mentions that if Sarah and Marco help him save his planet that Leo's people would be able to help the people of Earth if it ever came to it.  I would have loved if Bodeen had spent a little more time talking about our planet and what is happening to it.  I think it was a great opportunity to bring some environmental awareness to young kids and it maybe make a change starting with the next generation.  

As I mentioned in my last review, a map would have been a great addition to this story.  I also think that some illustrations would have been an excellent addition.  There are many unique things in this story from the mashed up animals to the scenery.  I kept trying to visualize what the mashup was of the animal that killed Leo's grandfather and is now stalking them all in the woods.  Obviously a black panther is one of them.  But it kept mentioning a long red tail and a red beard.  I cannot think of any animal that has a red beard besides a turkey.  And the animal didn't have feathers like a turkey does.  A picture would have been much appreciated to really visualize the animal. 

I'm excited to find out more about the progenitor and what exactly it is.  The entire time Leo was shielding everyone from seeing what it was.  I'm excited to read the final book and see how this series ends.  I would love for Leo to save his planet and either come back and visit or bring the family to visit him on his planet.  Either way I'm sure the final book in this series will pack a punch.  I give this 4 stars. 

Trapped by Michael Northrop

From Goodreads:

"The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive. . . .

Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason are among the last seven kids at their high school waiting to get picked up that day, and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn't seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when distractingly hot Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall. But then the power goes out, then the heat. The pipes freeze, and the roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision. . . ."

Goodreads - Trapped

I remember being in high school and experiencing the awe of snow days.  There is one day I remember in particular.  It was my senior year and the forecast called for snow.  I was sitting in my sewing class (it was a branch off of home ec...I had home ec classes for three of my seven classes..) and was talking with one of my friends.  School had just started and we kept slipping out of class to look out the doors by our classroom.  Finally it started snowing...hard.  About 30 minutes after school started an announcement was made that lunch would be served at 9:00 instead of at regular lunch time.  (Lunch was served early so that we could count the school day as a whole day instead of a half day.  This was done because of the logistics of making up school days.)  So we were all sitting around at "lunch" talking about the snow and getting all hyped up over it.  It ended up that it was coming down REALLY hard and parents were checking kids out of school left and right.  The entire yearbook staff went to our yearbook advisor and she signed us all out so that we could go home before the snow got bad.  I called my parents and told them that I was checked out and that I was sitting in my vehicle trying to get it to defrost and then I would be home.  They told me to absolutely not come home.  They sent my sister to come get me in her Jeep 4X4.  My Dad caught a ride with my brother-in-law and we met at my truck and he drove it home.  We were out of school for a few days because of how fast the snow came down.  It was pretty exciting because as seniors we all knew we wouldn't have to make those snow days up.

Now, you are probably wondering why I told this snow day story.  Had our school reacted slowly there was a chance we would have been snowed in.  Totally kidding.  I live in the deep south and in my 23 years of life I've only seen one winter where we were snowed in for an extended period of time.  But it was still all the excitement of "Oh no!  We could totally be snowed in here!  Can you imagine what that would be like?  Can you imagine all the chaos that would ensue!?"  This book made me think of this whole senior snow day experience.

The book is narrated by Scotty as he retells the events from the blizzard.  The book starts out with the kids getting excited about snow and some students discussing how soon they would be released from school.  Finally they were released.  Scotty and his friends decide to stay at school to work on a go kart.  Eventually they quit working on it and decide to go wait for them to all be picked up.  The three friends end up sitting with four others and a coach.  Things escalate and the kids all have to stay the night at school.  The mother of all snow storms continues to blow in and they have to figure out how to survive in the school without completely destroying it.  They do eventually get rescued, but not before some dramatic events take place.

I really enjoyed this book.  Oddly enough one of my favorite things was watching the snow build up on each page (when you read the book you'll know what I mean.)  I've always wondered what it would be like to stay the night in the school.  I of course hoped it would be full of shenanigan adventures, but in reality the only reason I would be staying the night in a school is if something horrific happened such as being snowed in.  And in that situation I would be doing what was necessary in order to survive.  The book was sequenced really well and told the story of the great blizzard.  I wish that the book had had date and time stamps for each chapter to kind of keep up with the time frame for what was happening.  I understand the reason they weren't there was because Scotty is telling the story and Scotty didn't have his phone with him during the blizzard.  It still would have been nice to have a time frame to watch the snow build and the survival instincts kick in.

Also, I didn't feel that I really connected with any of the characters.  Everything was really vague as far as the connection between the characters.  I didn't feel that the characters communicated as they probably really would have under realistic circumstances.  I know that if I had been trapped in my high school with two of my friends, two guys I liked, and two people I found weird or didn't like, that I would still talk to them.  I mean it's not like you could exactly turn on the TV. instead of talking to the people around you.  Maybe that's it's just my chatty side talking, but I would have gotten to know the six other people a whole lot better than when we first got trapped.  I would have really liked to see the characters interact more.  I think realistically, trapped students would probably try to entertain themselves.  If that meant searching the school for board games or books or whatever, then they would have found some way to keep themselves occupied.  We only saw things from Scotty's perspective and in my opinion he didn't talk a whole lot while he was trapped.  This was really a book of "read the whole account of what happened" instead of "here's everything we talked about and did while we were bored out of our minds and trapped in our high school."  I personally think that the characters could have all been a little more developed and probably a little more emotional and vocal about how they were feeling throughout the entire trapped adventure.  The characters were all bland.  There was nothing that made them exciting or unique.  Even Scotty was very blah.

I really wish that this book had had more of an ending to it.  I had some unanswered questions when it was all over.  The book ends rather abruptly.  I felt like the climax of the book was at the end, but it didn't have a big finisher...it just fizzled out.  I just wanted a chapter that was titled like a month later or three months later or a year later or something.  I just needed a final conclusion on what happened after.  Did the snow ever melt or were they all destined to be suffocated by the snow?  What happened to all parents?  Did any of the people who were trapped become friends?

Even with the lack of a solid ending, it was still a good book.  It was a good adventure survival book for young adults.  This would be a perfect book for someone who is wanting a book that keeps them wondering what will happen, but also looking for a book that is fairly simple to read and comprehend.  I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.