The 13th Reality

 

Here's another great series that I read with my children. The 13th Reality by James Dashner. 

From Goodreads: What if every time you made a choice that had a significant consequence, a new, alternate reality was created — the life that would've been? What if those new Realities were in danger? What if it fell to you to save all the realities? Atticus Higginbottom, a.k.a. Tick, is a regular thirteen-year-old boy living a regular life until the day a strange letter arrives in his mailbox. Postmarked from Alaska and cryptically signed with the initials "M.G.," the letter informs Tick that dangerous — perhaps even deadly — events have been set in motion that could result in the destruction of reality itself. M.G. promises to send Tick twelve riddles that will reveal that on a certain day, at a certain time, at a certain place, something extraordinary will happen. Will Tick have the courage to follow the twelve clues M.G. sends to him? Will he be able to solve the riddles in time? As M.G. warns Tick, very frightening things are coming your way. Will you join Tick and his friends on an amazing journey through the Realities? What will your choice be?

This is a fun story with some quirky characters that made us all laugh. I love that when Tick gets in a tough situation and isn't sure what to do, he tells his dad what's going on (a refreshing concept which I made sure to point out to my children). His dad is supportive of his adventure but also lets him figure some things out on his own. Throughout the series, Tick also has to make some tough choices and situations he found himself in led to some great discussions about having courage to make the right decision when the outcome might not be the most pleasant to you personally.

The second book is The Hunt for Dark Infinity, the third is The Blade of Shattered Hope and the fourth is The Void of Mist and Thunder. This series is the reason I now wait for all the books in a series to come out when I'm reading them with my children. I picked these up at Costco when book 3 had just come out, believing it to be a trilogy. It wasn't until we were almost done with book 3 that I realized there was a book 4. However, James Dashner was busy with his Maze Runner trilogy, which I don't fault him for--it's another great series which was having incredible success--and book 4 was delayed quite a bit. I like that he didn't just rush through book 4, either, but wanted time to make sure he gave the series justice, but it was hard to get back into after such a long break. We read book 4 in the Kindle format and I forgot until we were almost done that he includes "A Glossary of People, Places, and All Things Important" at the end of each of his books and that would have been a good thing to review so we would have had a better time remembering what was going on. Each book also has Discussion Questions at the end which are good to ponder and discuss. 

Book 4 was pretty intense and was full of lots of action sequences. This is a series I would like to visit again in the future and read them one right after the other because I really feel I would have gotten more out of book 4 if I remembered more of what had been going on. I got to the point where I wanted to finish it to see how it ended and I think it was satisfactory. Again, though, I may feel completely different about this book in the future.

My Rating for the series: 3.5 stars