Things That Are by Andrew Clements
Things That Are
by Andrew Clements
(Audio)
This is a follow-up to Thing Not Seen, which was an interesting book about a boy who wakes up invisible one morning. I saw this on the FCPS shelves at the library. Realizing it was a follow-up, I gave it a try. However, as I started to write this review, I realized that there's another book in the series: Things Hoped For. Apparently, I read book 1 then book 3, not even realizing that it wasn't book 2. Oops! And though I thought it worked all right as a sequel, now I realize why there was so much talk about Gwen. It all makes more sense now.
Do you know what I like less than a bad book? A bad sequel to a good book. I wasn't particularly thrilled with this book. Okay, so I definitely wouldn't call it bad. It just wasn't as good as the first book. This story is told from Alicia's point of view. Which is really neat and brave--a unique POV, telling a book through the eyes of a girl who is blind. The book doesn't lose anything because we don't actually see anything during the whole book. We're squarely and secirely inside Alicia's head and there's enough description, action, mystery, and tension that it doesn't even matter who's telling the story.
Except that it does. Bobby's the one who was invisible. Bobby's the one this new invisible guy, Robert, seems to be targeting. But, as trite as it sounds, Alicia sees a lot more than many people do. She's got a guide dog now and she's happier with herself, realizing she can make a difference in the world. But she gets so caught up in telling us every single little thought in her head, over-analyzing things and over-stating things until I wish I were reading the actual book and could fast foward through it all. The book would be really short without all her mental rambling, though.
As for the story, I liked it. There was a lot of uncertainness that seemed realistic to me, as was the danger the kids found themselves in. I had to admit that I wasn't as confident as Alicia through much of the book. I was sure things would go badly. And though sometimes things didn't go well, no one died. So there is that :-) The build up was slow and long, but the resolution was super quick and too convenient.
It was nice to find out what happens to these characters I enjoyed getting to know during the first book. And I'll probably try to track down the second book now to complete my mental picture of the series. But it just wasn't the book I had hoped for (pun not intended).