Sent book review

Sent

Reviewed by Ryan Ballentine

What would you do if you were the only one who could save history? This is the reality of Jonah and his little sister Kathryn in Haddix's Sent. The 2008 sci fi novels main protagonist is Jonah: a thirteen year old boy who was a baby stolen from the past along with 35 other kids, his sister Kathryn, she belongs in the 21st century.Chip: also one of the stolen children, in the past he was King Edward V, and kinda has a thing for Kathryn as he lets slip once he finds out his true identity “...maybe once you're feeling better, you’ll decide you like the fifteenth century and want to stay for good. Maybe you’ll want to be queen of England!”(Haddix 15) , 

Alex: Chip`s biological brother, in the past he was Richard, Duke of York.

All four are sent back in time to the 15th century to repair the damage done when the 36 children were taken from their home times. While in the middle ages they experience, uncles trying to kill their nephews (Chip and Alex) for the crown of england, medieval knight battles, and some really bad food. Along the way they try not to be noticed in their modern day clothes with modern day technology, and attempt, but fail at, not changing the course of history by interacting with major ‘players’ involved in the situation, while still trying to save the lives of Chip and Alex, who half the time are stuck in their tracers. Tracers are ghost representatives of what originally happened if no one interfered with time.

Overall, the novel is a pretty good read, being the second in a series, you have to read the first one to make any sense of it whatsoever, but if you do, it flows fairly easily and usually makes sense. being a time travel sci fi, I expected it to ramble on about machines, or just have people going back in time just because, well, they can. But that wasn't the case with this novel, the whole series more centers around the idea that no one has a destiny that is carved in stone, you mold your own future, and the things you experience change you forever. This becomes fairly present with the appearance of a tracer “They're tracers. They show you exactly what would have happened if no one had interfered in their time” (Haddix 26).

The story is written simply, it doesn't have many oversized words that you have to misspell six times in google to figure out what they mea. But the simple writing is also it’s biggest downfall, with the complex nature of the story the small and medium words occasionally end up a big cluster that you have to reread a few times to fully understand.

It is really interesting to see how a book thats whole story is based on an over complexity of one of the most overused topics in literature, can be so different from others, and still get a message across.