THE BOOK OF BEASTS {HOLLOW EARTH #3}

THE BOOK OF BEASTS by JOHN & CAROL E BARROWMAN.

SOURCE: An amazon.co.uk purchase.

THE BOOK {ACCORDING TO THE BACK COVER}: 'It won't be long now.
Death will come soon enough ...'

Twelve-year-old twins Matt and Emily Calder may be divided by time, but they are united in their mission to close Hollow Earth before the monsters inside can destroy their world. The key to success lies with their dazzling Animere talents: they can draw things into life and travel in time through art. But there are monsters outside Hollow Earth as well, intent on taking control of the beasts for themselves. And their own father is the worst monster of all ...

Even when you travel in time, time has a habit of running out.

FIRST SENTENCE {Part One: Chapter One - Scotland, September 1848}: Duncan Fox stood on the craggy hillside of Era Mina, squinting against the late summer sun  drenching the Isle of Bute and Aran in a golden light. 

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 30}: Henrietta put her hand on the man's shoulder, sensing instantly that he was hungry and annoyed about waiting in yet another queue. She gently pushed a series of images into his mind - scones topped with jam and clotted cream, steaming cups of tea. His wife blinked a couple of times as Henrietta filled her mind with a fog of confusion.

MY THOUGHTS: After Hollow Earth and Bone Quill we have The Book of Beasts, the final book in the trilogy. A trilogy that it has to be said is definitely one of those that needs to be read in order.

An OK read with what I felt to be a fitting end to an enjoyable enough series. Whilst the end of the trilogy I did feel that there is some scope for further adventures ... or was that just wishful thinking?

Geared towards 'tweenagers' (perhaps even younger, more confident readers) and upwards, one of the things I loved about all three books was that they should appeal to both boys and girls. Filled with just enough peril to suit a generation renowned for their love of computerised games (for such is the style of much of the action) without being too graphic so why my reservations? 

With short and snappy chapters anywhere between just over a page to almost four pages long the story traversed 'present day London', 'present day Edinburgh', 'fourteen years earlier', as well as a 'present day' and 'Middle Age' Auchinmurn Isle. 

Arguably not the strongest book in the series. Slightly confusing at times - it got even more so when at one point the novel saw several different events all occurring on the Middle Ages Auchinmurn Isle. I could well imagine younger readers getting lost off and felt that combined with the shorter chapters it meant that the narrative didn't flow as well as it might otherwise have done.

And why the addition of such a wonderful character as Henrietta (the arch-villain's mother and Matt and Emily's grandmother) who is capable of bending the minds of 'lesser mortals' at such a late stage?

Still, an innovative read - I certainly hadn't come across Animares before. Well worth keeping a look out for if you are into mystical beasts and the like.