He goes to school, where he’s in band he has a crush on a girl in his class, likes to rock-climb with his dad, fights with his sisters. Before you know it, the haze clears and the body of the story opens up in front of you like a clearing in the Amazonian jungle where most of the action takes place, and you are hooked.Ĭity of the Beasts centers on the adventures of Alexander Cold, a typical fifteen-year-old boy. “When you first start reading this book, you might think, ‘Oh, no, Isabel is talking down to the kiddies.’ But that’s not true, you'll see-keep reading! Although the book is written in a spare, unadorned, decidedly simple style, that is just a smokescreen for the slow-starting plot. City of the Beasts is an exciting first entry in a new series from Allende. With flashes of humor and lush physical detail, Allende keeps her didactic agenda in check, though there are lessons aplenty to be gleaned here about respecting differences, honoring the balance of life and the need to draw on deep reserves to meet unforeseeable challenges. Their journey also teaches them to appreciate the ways of the ‘People of the Mist’-a remote clan so finely attuned to nature that they can literally disappear into it. “ are destined to embark on a literally cliff-hanging quest, as they come face to face with the beasts (yes, plural), as well as their own innermost fears. “Adventure-stuffed page turner…Allende’s notorious, luminous gift for imaginative story-telling runs wild in the jungle.” “Adventure seekers will find plenty of thrills in Allende’s first novel for young readers…Reluctant readers may be intimidated by the thickness of this volume, but the plot moves at a rapid pace, laced with surprises and ironic twists.”
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