Seven Wonders Book 3: The Tomb of Shadows

We have enjoyed this series except for this book. The kids go to the underworld which is creepy with skin and eyeballs falling off, and Beghad loses his soul, and all for nothing! They should have asked more questions before entering such a horrible place. I stopped reading it to my son because it was too creepy for bedtime, and then just read him the end. But the rest of the books are great!

I have enjoyed the previous books in this series. However The Tomb of Shadows lacked substance. The action scenes fizzled. They could have been much more. The ending was not a cliff hanger, it was just unfinished. There was nothing to captivate you into waiting for the next book in the series. I will continue to read this series I want to know where it goes. This book really just felt rushed and unfinished.

The Good: Right on par with the previous books in the series. Adventure, lots of action, lots of intrigue and never knowing who to trust. A good, fast paced read with great characters and a little education thrown in - this time with the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus. Excellently written and destined to wow middle grade readers.

The Bad: Kids aren't going to care (I'd imagine), but Jack's parents in these books are beyond unrealistic. Mom's been making choices that are suspect since he was a baby and Dad is irrationally helpful to his cause. All of this is supposedly due to his ticking time bomb of genes, but would parents really blindly flail all over the place in the hopes that someone else may have an answer? Especially if this bending over backwards to find a cure took them away from the child they were trying to save in the first place? Or worse, enabling his repeated attempts to risk his life for a chance you have no reason to believe in?

SUMMARY: Marco is still missing, but the three remaining friends are in possession of the two loculi. They return to the Massa headquarters to find a trap awaiting them. This turns their world upside down. Who can they trust? Who can they turn to now that the institute seems out of their reach? With an unexpected resource on their team, they go in search of the third loculus of healing where they truly have to face down demons. This journey brings them down the road to loss and more betrayal.

THE GOOD: The three select that are left continue on their journey to find the loculi against all odds by sticking together and working together. I enjoy the humor throughout the book as it helps break up the serious parts. I especially love Torquin.
THE NOT AS GOOD: Book three was full of all sorts of problems. The three select kids go from one tragedy to another, but at no time did I truly connect with them as characters. They were too busy doing stuff. And at times it felt like truly random stuff. The first few chapters felt like a forced set up to get them in a new place. It had no purpose other than that of predictability. There is now a lot of confusion. Who are the good guys? Is Jack's mom evil? How are they to continue their mission since they had to destroy one of the loculi. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of finding all seven of them? The chapters where they journey to find the third loculus was just one page of nasty gore after another with zombies and body parts falling off. Then, they go through all this work and tragedy and don't even get the loculus. Total let down. The whole scene in New York was confusing and felt like nothing more than a set up for the next book. Book #3 plot was all over the place. I was not able to enjoy the journey they were on as much in the other books. I hope book #4 will tie everything together. Again there was quite a bit of violence and destruction as well as animal cruelty.

AGE RECOMMENDATION: GRADES 5-9 due to maturity and violence

For me, this is where the series when from "pretty good" to "alright". Don't get me wrong, it's still entertaining, but the issues have become too large to be ignored, and are starting to over-"shadow" the fun bits.

Imagine, you have the superpowers of invisibility and flight. Your mission to recover the 5 remaining loculi is top secret; you are breaking into museums, sneaking to ancient sites, and trying to avoid the murderous, ruthless Massa organization who is after the exact same thing you are after. And instead of rigging up a permanent harness that allows you and your small party to invisibly fly from place to place, you keep the loculi, the sources of your superpowers, shut tight in your backpack, making certain that you get caught as often as possible. What??? This is only the tip of the iceberg. 99% of the messes they get into could have been avoided by obvious and careful usage of the loculi. The messes are there just to add conflict and fill out the story.

Narration is more of the same. Mostly really good, still yelling and one or two annoying voices. Mispronunciations. Still plenty of slavering.

The action is still there, the funny lines are still there. So if you especially liked those and aren't too bothered by poor character intelligence, you will probably continue to love these books.

Marco has betrayed the KI Institute. Now Jack, Aly and Cassis are on their own and must locate the next Loculi. In this third of seven books, we focus on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. But all is not well on this journey because at the beginning the KI institute is attacked and now our three heroes must find new allies and battle their greatest threat yet. A threat that will lead to a death.

The book is an easy, fast read. By this point the characters are well developed and the author gets to focus on the story. Maybe that's why the book is shorter than the last one.

I loved this book inside, and out. there was action, adventure, and a little bit of mystery here and there. the only downside to this book is that i don't think that the author was really into this book as much as the others. it seemed like the other books gave me more detail about the characters, and what they were doing. I also wish that the book a was a little longer then it was. don't get me wrong, it is a great read especially if your already a fan of the Seven Wonders series, but I just wish there was a little more detail, and a little more content to capture my attention for more then ten hours.

I think the ending of the books needs to be alot better I know that the author is trying to leave us hanging to read the other book but I think that the author could have been a bit longer an more descriptive… Other wise I thought the book was great!!