The Secret Sea
By Barry Lyga
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Twelve-year-old Zak Killian is hearing a voice. Could it be a guardian angel? A ghost? No, that's crazy. But sometimes the voice is so real. . . . It warns him of danger.
One day Zak is standing on the subway platform when the tunnel starts to fill with water. He sees it before anyone else. The voice warns him to run. His friends Moira and Khalid believe this is more than a premonition, and soon all three find themselves in an alternate universe that is both familiar and seriously strange. As Zak unravels the mystery behind the voice, he faces decisions that may mean the end of their world at home—if they can even get home!
In his most propulsive and heartfelt book yet, acclaimed author Barry Lyga explores the depths of friendship, the bonds of family, and the nature of the universe itself.
"Hold onto your seats. We've got adventure and high-stakes horror here that takes us from our world to another. You did it, Barry. This is the novel you were meant to write."
--R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street
Barry Lyga
Barry Lyga is a recovering comic book geek and the author of many books, including The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Goth Girl Rising, Boy Toy, and Hero-Type for HMH, Wolverine: Worst Day Ever for Marvel Books, and Archvillian for Scholastic. He has also written comic books about everything from sword-wielding nuns to alien revolutionaries. He worked as marketing manager at Diamond Comic Distributers for ten years. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.Visit Barry online at www.barrylyga.com.
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Reviews for The Secret Sea
3 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a fun, easy read. Join an adventure in an alternate universe, where things are eerily similar while diametrically different. This is an enjoyable foray into a strange new world. Pick up a copy and immerse yourself into the unusual experiences of a few teenagers.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is that rare beast, the Middle Grade novel that has middle school-aged protagonists and is aimed at a middle-school audience. Lyga neither keeps his characters immature in order to appeal to a 9-to 11-year-old readership nor has them acting like high schoolers in order to satisfy some aspirational middle school fantasy. Zak, Moira, and Khalid are very firmly and clearly twelve or thirteen and their actions and decisions reflect that. Yes, they manage to get themselves out of tricky situations in really clever ways, but those escapes are never implausible given what we know of the characters of these characters. They also make a lot of mistakes and poor decisions because they let their emotions and impulses rule. This is especially true of Zak who almost makes a catastrophic mistake in pursuit of something he wants to be true.
Lyga also creates an alternate world which is both appealing and terrifying—it is technologically advanced (and has magic!), but is The Handmaid's Tale-level oppressive to women,. Lyga is clearly a feminist with a feminist agenda and gods bless him for it. While he never beats the reader over the head with the idea of equality, it is very clear and examined in ways that will, it is to be hoped, make kids take stock of their own attitudes and prejudices and maybe make some adjustments.
Several characters mention how they would be willing to give up the technology of this alternate world to live in a world where women weren't treated as property, but there was another question that was never addressed, and it's one that may be even more important and more difficult to answer. In the alternate Manhattan, the United States had abolished slavery more than a century before it happened here and there is true racial equality and harmony. So, if Dr. Bookman, for example, had to make a choice between his world with its racial harmony and advanced technology (and magic!) or our world with its striving for equality for all, but its large pockets of prejudice and intolerance, which would he choose?
Overall, this is a big, smart middle grade adventure novel that manages to thoroughly entertain its readers while also challenging them to think about bigger issues. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When Zak was small, he had an imaginary friend called Tommy. But then, at age 12, he starts to hear Tommy again and to have visions. Suddenly, he and his two best friends find themselves in an alternate universe where some things are better, and others are much worse. Seeking to resolve the mystery, Zak makes a decision that may bring destruction to their world and strand his friends in the alternate.