Author: Sharon Cameron
Publisher: Scholastic
Rating: WARTY!
So what's the third volume to be called? A Bark Untreed? A Quark Unbecoming? Maybe there should be a competition? A Spark Unseen is the second novel in the series which kicked off with The Dark Unwinding, which I reviewed favorably back in early July, but wasn't sure that I would pursue the series. I guess I decided to go for it, because I didn't hesitate to pick this up from the library as soon as I found it there. I got three sequels off their 'new' shelves one after another. What an exciting moment that was! I couldn't believe it! Unfortunately, two of the three have so far turned out to be really awful, including this one.
Anyway, it's two years on from that original story (for reasons unknown) as this story begins with two French guys breaking into Katharine Tully's bedroom to kidnap uncle Tully, but they fail, and when the British government shows that it’s hell-bent upon holding Tully and Katie hostage while they try to get him to develop a torpedo in the shape of a fish, Katie takes drastic action. Why they waited two years - why everyone paused for two years is completely unexplained and makes zero sense.
Katie declares that her uncle has died, and she orchestrates his speedy burial before the government can take herself and her uncle into their "protective custody". Secretly, she dumps her (drugged) uncle inside a trunk and removes him from his modest estate, heading to France where she hopes to discover what has happened to Lane - her favored young man who preceded her to France two years ago and has since been reported dead - by the British government. So, other than the fact that Cameron evidently doesn't know that 'pence' is plural (p15 "...one pence..." should be "...one penny...") we seemed like we were off to a good start. But little did I know....
At only one third the way in, I was definitely not enjoying this novel. I was already skipping what I considered to be boring parts. Uncle Tully became tedious in the extreme. The problem is that nothing is happening but artificiality: cheap "scary" moments, annoyingly vague threats, absurdly mysterious men. Yes, in other words, it’s really badly and amateurishly written. This is the problem with the ubiquitous, creeping, insistent trilogy of YA fiction. You may love the first, the last or even the middle, but you rarely love all three volumes. Why, other than the obvious avarice, do publishers demand them? Why do writers cave-in and write them? What was the last trilogy you read and found completely pleasing in all its parts? When did you read one which honestly told an engaging story which could not have been completely, competently, satisfactorily, and adequately related in only one volume?
Let's talk about insane coincidences in A Spark Unseen (if a spark is unseen, does it really spark?!). How did it happen that a friend (Mrs Hardcastle) of her despised Aunt Alice is living quite literally right next door to her new home? What are the odds of that happening by chance? Yet not a single person in Katie's entire group even thinks for a second that there's anything remotely suspicious about this entirely artificial arrangement. Not only is she too dumb to even imagine a problem, she actually creates one with her snooping. I don’t get Katie's romping around Mrs Hardcastle's house exploring, uninvited, upstairs and listening at the walls. It isn't important at all to do this, yet she does it and gets caught thereby making herself far more suspicious than she would have been had she done nothing and instead simply let them wonder about any odd noises coming from their new next door neighbor.
And the bullshit M. Marchand? Amateur. It’s probably Lane in disguise, although if it is, Katie would have to be even more stupid than she already has proven herself to be to not recognize him, and he would have to be a complete jerk not to announce himself. I don’t know what his story is, but he's altogether too oily for my taste, and Katie is altogether stupid and entirely indecent in allowing him to escort her alone. And what’s with letting her new servants walk all over her? I was actually liking the DuPonts (the servants) better than any other characters, even as obnoxious as they are. That ought to relate something of my experience with this novel!
At about half-way through, there's no sign of Lane and many signs of how awful a character Katie is! I found myself living in hopes that he wouldn't show just for the hell of it! That would have been refreshing. Marchand is probably Lane's brother. I got to thinking that maybe it’s time to ditch Lane as an ally and tell him to take his street smarts and hit the road now their relationship has become a cul-de-sac? But the question remains: how are Katie and her uncle better off in Paris than if they'd simply taken the government's offer? And how can Katie be so selfish as to do this to her uncle for nothing more than pursuing her own selfish interest in finding Lane? At this point I not only didn’t like the novel, I neither liked nor respected the main character.
So I count this as a warty DNF! I was so tired of uncle Tully's madness, and of Katie's total lack of a spine, and one one asinine mystery piled on top of another, with neither sight nor sound of any of them ever being resolved, and with a sure conviction that the bulk of them were red herrings anyway, I said, "Enough is enough!" Life is too short to waste on trashy novels when there are so many good ones clamoring to be read!
