Book Review: Sneak

I rarely purchase audio books, but am always on the look-out since I listen during every treadmill session and often during car trips. Trevor got his driver's license at the end of May. Before that, I spent lots of time in the car. Each trip to and from Trevor's ranch job took almost twenty minutes (plus I often killed time listening while waiting for him). Add on trips to take him to visit his girlfriend and trips to transport Sean from track practices and meets, and football practices, and we were putting about 600 miles a week on our vehicles (prime audio book time whenever the boys were not in the car with me).

Thus, when I happened upon this audio book, Sneak, at a thrift store for a couple bucks, I took a gamble. I discovered, post-purchase, that it is the second book in Evan Angler's Swipe series. If I hadn't purchased it, I might have given up after one disc. The first problem? Oasis Audio fails to track their CDs in 3-5 minute increments. Instead, the tracks run around 15-25 minutes long. Since my treadmill CD player doesn't skip to the middle of tracks, I'm often stuck waiting for a track to finish. Moreover, the narrator's voice was a bit grating. I applaud him for providing distinctive voices with so many characters, but still felt it came out whiny and high-pitched. Thankfully, I overlooked those two drawbacks.

Once two discs in, I was hooked on the story line and far more willing to continue. Indeed, I now hope to encourage my youngest son to read the middle-grade series. It has boy appeal and is a timely tale. Set in a future where you must receive a mark to "swipe" in order to buy goods and services, Logan Langly is on the run as a "mark-less" after escaping his marking ceremony. He hopes to find and rescue his older sister who disappeared after her marking ceremony. She is rumored to be held in a high-security prison called Acheron, where escape seems hopeless. Will the other mark-less, known as "the Dust," be able to help him evade D.O.M.E. (Department of Marked Emergencies)? Will they be able to rescue Lily? Can Logan find the answers to his many questions? This fast-paced tale could have been pulled from today's news. What a riveting introduction to this Christian apocalyptic series!