Review: Trick of the Light

Trick of the Light by Marina Cohen
Publisher: Vanwell Publishing Limited
Pub. Date: October 1st, 2007
Pages: 222
Series: 2nd in Trilogy
Age Level: 9+

Synopsis via Book
When Sherman Glutz receives a mysterious package in the mail, he has no idea his life is about to become another exciting and dangerous adventure. Unwilling to believe the bizarre clues, Sherman is more concerned with surviving the bully, Billie Binkleburg. And yet, when Sherman accepts he has no choice but to rescue his old pal Drake Livingstone, and when Billie comes along for the ride, a trip through a black hole bridging time and space seems to be the least of Sherman's worries.

Review (No spoilers, at all!)
After reading Trick of the Light, I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while I liked Shadow of the Moon, I actually enjoyed this one even more.

Trick of the Light mostly focuses it's attention on Sherman, whom I liked getting to watch develop more, and Billie, who's a new addition to the journey. The two of them made for an awesome pairing with their witty banter and humorous personalities. Though this particular book focused on Sherman and Billie, I did get to see more of Drake and found myself really liking him in this one despite his sporadic presence; Stella didn't really appear much. Then we had Virgil, another new character. He was a tricky and manipulative little ole troll but he really added to the plot. Something I have found interesting while reading Shadow of the Moon and Trick of the Light is that I actually find Umbra, the villain, to be a more intriguing character than Aura. Go figure.

Trick of the Light continues the unique, fast-paced, and fun adventure that began in Shadow of the Moon. I love how both books incorporated a little bit of mythology into them and Trick of the Light even had it's own refreshing take on 'the nine circles of hell' from Dante's Inferno. Only each circle represented other things and there were only five. While the middle graders that these books are more geared towards may not pick up on this intriguing aspect, many teens and adults likely would. This is one of the reasons I think teens may enjoy these books.

The writing, while not exactly amazing, was noticeably more polished than in Shadow of the Moon. Since I more successfully connected with the characters this time, I found that I didn't mind the third-person narrative. In fact, I sort of grew to like it.

The ending wasn't the same big cliffhanger type ending as the one in the previous book. Rather, it could of actually gotten away with being the end to the overall story. However, I have reason to believe that this is indeed a trilogy and Cohen is planning to write a third and final book.

In the end, Trick of the Light went on to prove me correct when I said these books had the potential to be a great trilogy. The majority of the flaws that I had found with Shadow of the Moon were fortunately absent in Trick of the Light. This really is a lovely set of books for kids and middle graders. Also, if at nearly 18 I could enjoy these books, then I'm sure other teens out there can too. I just find it such a shame that they are out of print as I feel they would make a great addition to the literary world. I'm really hoping Cohen will write the third book and find a larger publishing house to take on these books. So if anyone from Penguin, Little Brown, Harper, Simon and Schuster, Scholastic, etc happens to be reading this, do yourself a favor and contact Marina Cohen. I can honestly see these exciting, magical, and action-packed books becoming big hits in Children's literature.

Grade
Characters: B
Writing: B-
Plot: B+
Ending: B-
2nd in Trilogy: B
Enjoyment/Likability: B-
Recommendable: B+

Overall: B

Cover: C+