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|title=Sentinel

|sort=Sentinel

|publisher=Peridot Press

|date=May 2014

|summary=When fifteen-year-old Nicholas Hallows' parents are killed, he discovers they were members of a secret society fighting dark creatures – and he is soon right at the centre of an epic struggle between good and evil.

}}

In many ways this book is not as typical of fantasy and mild horror as the summary might suggest. Unlike a lot of stories where we join the main character in the aftermath of a major event, this one begins before Nicholas is orphaned. The ever-increasing tension as his parents leave for a train journey, coming so soon after a menacing and mysterious prologue, makes it pretty clear to us that they won't be returning, and that Nicholas will soon be in deadly danger himself.

The book is overwritten in parts (such a lot of adverbs!) and a fair amount of time is invested in the early chapters in creating a portrait of one character who then disappears. Still, the two sections which preface the introduction of Nicholas are intense and climactic, and will carry the reader through the less dramatic events which follow. There is quite a lot of violence, and watching men and women as they are turned from good to evil means this is not a book for the faint-hearted. Although the main character is only fifteen, which suggests the book's readership would be between eleven and fourteen, it may be enjoyed more by those at the upper end of that group and teens. There are clear questions left at the end of the book which hint at what will happen in the next two volumes of the series, but there was enough of a resolution to the immediate plot for readers to close the book feeling satisfied.

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[[category:Confident Readers]]

[[Category:Teens]]