SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
The twins and Nimrod travel to South America to stop an unknown enemy from awakening an evil force. But they are faced with enemies and traps on all sides.
OUR CAST OF CHARACTERS
John unfortunately comes off as unlikable as Phillipa usually does. He instantly dislikes the new character Zadie and makes more than a few cruel comments. And although he misses Rakshasas, this doesn't make up for his annoying behavior. Also, he wants to leave a character to die, because he doesn't like her.
Phillipa is still the same. Making arrogant and ignorant comments. She still assumes she knows more than everyone around her.
Nimrod is losing his charm. He no longer comes off as witty and wise. Instead condescending and arrogant.
Groanin comes along and makes his usual blunt comments. Probably the most likable character in the book. Although he wants to leave a character for dead, so that doesn't say much about the caliber of characters in this story.
Dybbuk is only in a small portion of this book. He seems to have learned nothing from his past mistakes. There really isn't any time to hope for development. I am disappointed, because although he was rather predictable and selfish and the last book, I had high hopes that he would develop through realizing the horrible mistakes he made. He didn't.
NEW CHARACTERS-SPOILERS
Zadie starts as a friend if Phillipa, and I had hopes that she would help develop the mechanical twin. But this was soon lost. Apparently Zadie is obnoxious and no one likes her. This hatred becomes tiresome and makes our characters seem petty and childlike. Even Groanin. I think Kerr thought it would be funny if they hated her, but I think this is another mistake that I have previous talked about: making everything a joke.
I kept waiting to figure out why she was there. If not to help develop Phillipa or John, she had to have some purpose. When I found it, I wasn't impressed. (She is responsible for something bad.) If anything, I was annoyed. I could feel nothing, because the supposed backstory about her and another characters are told to us, and never shown. Not through flashbacks or anything. Also, she was just hypnotized, so who cares?
Sicky is a native who becomes a guide to the twins. His head is shrunken slightly from his body. He felt like a cartoon character with not much intelligence. Nothing about him seemed believable, not lack of desire for revenge or the desire to fix his disfigurement.
NEGLECTING DYBBUK
It seems Kerr could think of no way of incorporating Dybbuk into the main plot so he threw him into the end. It wasn't a terrible idea, after all Dybbuk could have easily been into denial about his past mistakes, and continued on the wrong path. But it just wasn't believable because the reader gets to only see the end of what should have been a full story.
WHO IS THE VILLAIN? SPOILERS
The villain who is in charge of the explorers who seek out the eye of the forest is a mystery. When it was finally discovered, I didn't feel much surprised or vindicated. I guess it had to be someone we already knew since it would be hard to add a new villain so late in the story. Oh, I'll just say it, it's Virgil Mcreeby.
PROPHECY
There is a prophecy mentioned early on about twins. I thought it was almost clever, the way it turned out to be not what we thought. Except that it's brought up, then never spoken of again by Nimrod. It felt like an oversight. If Nimrod thought the twins were part of a prophecy, wouldn't he have filled them in? Instead, we never speak of it, and when it is mentioned again, I was like, “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that thing.” It just never felt important.
IT'S NOT MAGIC, IT'S GLOBAL WARMING
There is an odd moment early on in the book where it is discovered that they cannot travel by whirlwind. It's speculated that it is because of global warming. It was such an odd moment that took me right out of the book. I wanted to say, “hey, they changed it to climate change, although they may change it again in another decade.” To throw politics into a fairy tale just felt weird. I am generally not a fan of these kinds of things, because they date books too. And years from now kids who read this book won't have a clue what they are talking about.
THE PROBLEM OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
When it comes to Phillipa, instead of showing, we get told that she is “too diplomatic” to express her anger at being abandoned by someone. And when she puts her life at risk, we have to be reminded how beloved she is, by Groanin, who says how much he loves her. It's like a neon sign by the author saying: “Phillipa is great! Smart and brave. Groanin says so.” Just stop.
Also, when it's pointed out that Lupuna trees are cut down and are important to the country, she shows extreme arrogance when she says they should stop. It's their livelihood. But she is too sheltered and privileged to know that, apparently. There is a perfect chance to make her struggle with power given to her, but instead she tells it to Nimrod after making the so-called hard decision to give it up.
As for Nimrod, he makes a few smarmy comments, one about how he doesn't want a to make a new religion, because there are far too many. Right. The stupid masses and their religion. That really made me wince.
Another time he says to John that American's can't understand words with more than three syllables. He is quickly becoming a jackass. Regarding the argument about how Christmas trees are cut down that he makes to Phillipa, he sounds like an idiot. Basically he says cutting down Christmas trees is the same as destroying the rain forest. No, really. When in reality those trees are planted to be sold, and then replaced. Unlike the Lupuna trees, which are just destroyed. But smart Phillipa can't see through this bad argument.
WHY, FINLEY? SPOILERS
John makes a note that he thought Finlay was helping out the villain of the story. Even though he makes no mention of this suspicion at all. There were also no hints about that. Didn't Finlay hate his dad the last time we checked? I wonder if Kerr remembers what he wrote.
JUST IGNORANT
When the group gets almost killed by Xuanaci, and they will most likely get killed by a wish gone awry, he points out they are ignorant. So it's okay that they tried to kill them all. Or something. This could have gone so much better if a different argument was made. As such, it just came across as stupid. He simply should have said that all lives are sacred, and maybe one day they could change and evolve, so they should try to save the Xuanaci.
SIDE STORY-SPOILERS
There is a side story about the twins' parents, Layla and Edward. I didn't quite get why Layla had to lose her body in the last book. Mrs. Trump going into a coma so she could have her body seemed macabre. So when she ended up going to South America, the same continent that the kids ended up going to later, I knew there had to be a reason. Except there wasn't. As djinnternal mail can be used at any distance, so it didn't matter that she was there. On the plus side, there is a random Marlon Brando reference that no one under thirty will understand.
Anyway, Layla uses her powers to control the governmental army to get a plane and put the lives of others in danger, because she can't use a whirlwind. It would be immoral you know, with global warming and all.
Now there is actually a point to this story, which is to resolve the relationship of Edward and his wife. He admits he is terrified of her, and how she can easily kill anyone she wants. So she agrees to swear off her powers again. The only problem? This came way too late. When Layla murdered the two intruders in her house, she was judge, jury and executioner. And the twins didn't even flinch. So it all feels all bottled up and put away for later, when Kerr suddenly remembers that murder might not be a good idea. Even if your a self-righteous djinn.
JOHN'S DREAMS-SPOILERS
John falls asleep next to a Lupuna tree and dreams an answer up crucial to the plot. Kerr tells us how dangerous they are, with people falling asleep next to them and waking up centuries later. But apparently Nimrod didn't think it was that important to tell John that, even though judging by his reaction, he knew all about it. This just doesn't make sense. Nimrod sees the trees and points them out, but doesn't share the crucial information he knows about them? If he didn't see them, that would make sense. But he points them out to John.
CLIMAX-SPOILERS
Near the end of the book, Phillipa ends up discovering the power of a gift she received in the previous book: her slippers. I couldn't help but feel this was thrown in at the last minute. I kept thinking, this wasn't planned when you wrote the ending of the last book, was it? I seriously doubt it. It felt cheap. I thought, well at least we will have a good conversation between her and Dybbuk. Wrong. Dybbuk is out cold, so she just tries to awaken him by telling him he's not bad. That doesn't work. Big surprise. So she leaves him to be evil.
CONCLUSION
John and Phillipa still don't develop, and it's getting more hopeless for them. Zadie could have been a female friend to Phillipa, but instead we get another annoying character. And although there is a mentioning of a prophecy to restore a djinn's power, Dybbuk still feels shoehorned into the story. There is plenty of adventure and monsters to meet, from giant mosquitoes to killer piranha. Unfortunately, the characters distract from this. Not to mention so much bad logic that you would think a teenager was writing this book. I give “The Eye of the Forest” two and a half stars.
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