Sara, Disapproving Death Mountain

My book club book was called Death Mountain, by Sherry Shahan. This book was very disappointing in the beginning, middle, and end. You can tell that the author made an attempt to put you on edge, but she didn't do a very good job. This book also has no awards, which can sometimes be a hint. You also have to sort of bear through it instead of enjoying it. Those reasons make for a very bad action book.

I thought that, first of all, there was a surprising lack of details. Any small details were in the wrong places. For example, when Erin (Main character) and Mae find the dead ranger in the cave. All it explains, really, is about how they find the ranger and take his stuff. No details, no explanations, nothing. Just telling. And when Erin would talk about her crazy mom, Lannie. She never really told you anything about her. Just that she was sick and, yes, mentally ill. Sherry just left you with that.

Another thing that disappointed me was the ending. When Erin and Mae finally get out of the mountains, they just called home and left. The end. Finished. That part really got me irritated. As a matter of fact, the whole book did. And this book is also sort of gross. Like Erin gets sick and throws up a couple times, and her toenail falls off, etc. So really, not much entertains you. Just grosses you out. Blech! I think that Sherry should have done many things differently. Like Erin shouldn't have lost a toenail or thrown up. And the lightning storm shouldn't have been so sudden. And there were some things that were not important enough to be in the story. Like Seqouia, the park ranger's lost dog. They found him and took him with them. That didn't need to be there! And most of the small things- like that the fish they caught smelled bad- didn't belong in the story as well! Last of all, it lacked humor! I can't really say any book without humor is good, though. There was a few corny jokes made, but thats not enough to satisfy me. Or anyone else who is sensible, probably.

All in all, there was nothing very good about this book, as you can see by my examples. I strongly discourage this book to anyone who likes action books, or is grossed out easily. I give this book 1 tree.