TomeAlone reviewed Loch by Paul Zindel
None
2 stars
When I was in middle school, I read a pretty rad book called The Doom Stone. I’ve been wanting to reread it, so I went to my library. They didn’t have it, so I had to do an interlibrary loan. And thus I discovered that it’s the second in a series called The Zone Unknown. Which I never knew, though I don’t think it’s an episodic series. Seems to be more of a thematic one.
Anyway, Loch is the first book, and I bet I would have loved it as a kid. It would actually probably make a pretty fun movie. The writing is kind of ho-hum, however, and the third-person omniscient is a little jarring sometimes. It’s that weird sort of YA book where it’s very breezy and characterization is very thin(apart from Zaidee, who rules), but there are moments of sudden gnarly gore and violence.
Anyway, Loch is the first book, and I bet I would have loved it as a kid. It would actually probably make a pretty fun movie. The writing is kind of ho-hum, however, and the third-person omniscient is a little jarring sometimes. It’s that weird sort of YA book where it’s very breezy and characterization is very thin(apart from Zaidee, who rules), but there are moments of sudden gnarly gore and violence.
Probably great for middle-schoolers, albeit with a few surprisingly bloody passages, but not much appeal beyond that, unfortunately. I’d watch the movie, though.