Merrett’s Gift
by Ian Mitchell-Gill
Publication Date:
June 3rd 2016
Publisher: FriesenPress
Find This Book: Merrett’s Gift
Rating: 3.5/5
I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
I’m not going to
lie, this book had a slow start. Why? Because the author tackled the
challenging prospect of 6 (quickly down to 5) main characters and Merrett who I
assumed was the main character wasn’t actually introduced until like page 80. The
slowness comes with the prospect of lots of information getting flung at the
reader from all sides about all topics. The POV floated from character to
character. It was done in a super cool way format-wise, but this means it takes
a lot longer to get attached to the characters since you are not getting to
know and bonding strongly with any one character. It was a unique approach
which I thought was really cool. Unfortunately, it meant that it took the first
150 pages or so for me to get really into the story. However, once I was into
it I was *really* into it!
Imagine some super
talented angsty teens with a wholesome mentor-mentee relationship attend a
high-tech spy school. That’s this book. It was even more heart-warming finding
out that this book was written chapter by chapter for the author’s own students
and is now something they are sharing with a larger audience (aka me). I was a
bit skeptical with some of the student behavior, as it’s extremely different
from how my friends and I acted in middle school and high school, but I’m sure
his students know better than I and of course there may be some behavioral
differences as well being from different countries.
The most
interesting part of the book was the 25-years-later epilogue. As there is a
book two, I was pretty shocked! I’m genuinely intrigued as to what book two
could possibly be about. There’s currently not a book description on Goodreads
and I haven’t read the back cover yet, but I know I’m in for a plot-twist
filled adventure! I’m hoping for a bit of improvement in the writing (while the
plot was action packed and awesome, this story was a bit of tell-don’t-show)
and I will be sure to update you all soon about my read of Book 2: Merrett’s
Choice!
*Side note. Pretty sure Lydia is ace? But also it's hard to really get backstory and details about any one character when there are five MC's. My interpretation however is that Lydia is ace and I am I prepared to fight about it.