The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

TL;DR kids with superpowers fighting an insane scientist

TBR #1028

finished 3/2/16

Man, I feel like I haven't finished a book in forever. 

My friend that got me into the Percy Jackson series recommended this series. I bought the omnibus of the first two books when we went to Half Price Books on our Dallas trip since it was $6.99. (We really need some Half Price Books out here.) 

I didn't start reading The Prisoner of Cell 25 until after the spring semester had started. I didn't keep track of my progress on Goodreads, so it's hard for me to estimate how long it took me to read it. 

It took a while for me to become interested in the book. The concept was good, and I had a lot of faith in the recommendation of my friend, but the narration felt a little dull. Now, in all honesty, most of the books I read are written from a third-person or female first-person POV, so it's possible that it's just me being unused to a male first-person perspective. The only other series I can easily think of with a male narrator is Percy Jackson. 

I think a lot of my issue with the book was that a lot of it felt simplified. That's not necessarily bad, but it's not what I'm used to reading. A lot of the issues felt too black-or-white and a lot of the characters felt pretty polarized, moving from one extreme to the other. 

(I would personally classify The Prisoner of Cell 25 as more MG than YA, but it's in the YA section of Barnes and Noble, and I'm pretty sure I'm out of the demographics for the book.) 

I liked most of the characters. There wasn't as much depth as I was hoping, and the character development felt a little sudden a few times, but I think it works within the context. The book is focused more on action than the individual characters, and with five other books in the series, there's a lot of room for them to grow more. 

My favorite character was definitely Ostin. I really liked how he was a valuable part of the cast even without powers like the rest of the kids. The theory I had about him didn't come up at all in the book, so I'm curious about if I'm actually right about it in the end or not. 

My biggest problem with the book was Hatch. He came off as very "evil scientist", and there wasn't enough that made him seem like he had any redeeming or human qualities. He also had huge mood / temperament swings more than once, though that might be due to his abusive nature -- I don't have enough experience reading about abusive characters to say for sure or not. 

That said, there are some CWs for mental and physical abuse. Those poor kids go through a lot because of Hatch. 

Hopefully I'll get to talk to my friend soon and get his perspective of the book, since we have different interests and reading habits. It was nice to break out of what I normally would read and get to try another type of MG / YA books. I don't know that I would have picked up the series without knowing that he'd read it. 

I'm going to continue in the omnibus and read Rise of the Elgen (hopefully sooner rather than later). I'm not sure what I'll do after that -- if my friend lends me his copies of the other books, I'll probably try to completely catch up with the series. 

TL;DR I think I may be a little out of the book's intended demographic, but it was a good read. It's compelling once the plot gets rolling and it doesn't have any melodrama or cliches like a lot of other YA books have. I'm definitely curious about will happen in the next book.