Leepike Ridge (N. D. Wilson)

Leepike Ridge
N. D. Wilson
Yearling
Fiction, YA Adventure
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Fourteen-year-old Thomas Hammond lives on the outskirts of town with his mother, in an old house chained to the top of a giant boulder. He has never thought to question it, never thought to wonder about the occasional rumor of tunnels through the nearby mountains and treasure hunters disappearing; he's more concerned with the willows and the frogs in the creek... and, more recently, with the unsavory man courting his widowed mother. One night, too full of anger to sleep, he slips out of the house and drifts on a piece of packing foam in the water to clear his head - and finds himself grabbed by the current and pulled into a mysterious cavern next to a dead body. Thus begins Tom's adventure under the mountain, an adventure that careens from raw survival through impossible discoveries and the unearthing of long-buried secrets. Meanwhile, above ground, Tom's mother Elizabeth begins her own journey, beginning with her conviction that her son is still alive in the face of all evidence and leading down paths nearly as deadly as those faced by Tom.

REVIEW: I read and enjoyed the first two books of Wilson's 100 Cupboards trilogy (reviewed earlier on this blog, and on my site here), so I thought I'd try this, his first young adult book. I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be. Tom's adventures strain credibility more than once, and I couldn't help thinking that part of the story had been trimmed in the speed and neatness of its wrap-up. Wilson has some nicely descriptive prose, however, and presents several neat scenes for the mind's eye to contemplate. I didn't hate it, but I definitely preferred the 100 Cupboards trilogy (what I've read of it, at least.)