So I picked this book up as part of my Read Harder challenge. The task was to read a YA novel. I thought I would give Divergent a chance. But when I got to the YA section of the bookstore, I found a familiar name - Christopher Pike. In my teen years, & even into college, I read EVERY book by Christopher Pike I could, starting with Slumber Party. So seeing this book rekindled my love affair with Pike, & I was excited to get to it.

Well, either I'm really over YA novels, or Pike is. Because this was nowhere near as interesting or enthralling as his earlier work was. It should have been better: no vampires, no dystopia, but an exotic locale, an ancient powerful artifact, & a resourceful female protagonist. Should have the makings of a fun ride, if nothing else. Yet it was just not at all intriguing. The only surprise was that Sara's parents were not as she thought them to be, & even that was so heavily foreshadowed that the "surprise" of it was diluted.

I've read enough stuff by Pike to know that he is capable of writing a much better story. Perhaps that's the greatest disappointment here. I went into this hoping to reconnect with an old love, but he's barely recognizable to me now :( ( )

I wasn't very impressed with this book. Having just finished reading Thirst #3 it seemed to have a similar storyline, but just with different characters and setting. I didn't connect to the characters and I wasn't impressed with the story line. I liked parts of it, but as the story continued I just kept seeing similarities between his latest novels.. so I felt like it was a repeat of past work. And I preferred the past work better (Alosha series were MUCH better). ( )

Sara Wilcox is 15 years old, from Raleigh, NC, and is in Istanbul visiting her father who works at Becktar Enterprises. Unfortunately for her, she's left pretty much alone and bored all day long. Then she sees a cute boy with a package for her father. After a tussle in the hotel lobby, she has the package in hand and has met Amesh, who lost his right hand in some sort of accident. He also works for Becktar Enterprises, and with lots of encouragement, agrees to take Sara to the work site.

At the work site, her surprised father gives her a mini-tour. With their shared interest in archaelogy, he tries to get her inside a cave with ruins over 7,000 years old that they unearthed during construction, but is not able to do so. On this visit, Sara finds an old carpet as she is resting and waiting for a taxi to bring her back to the hotel. She decides to clean it up and keep it, so, with a little (a lot) of help from Amesh, it is smuggled out of the worksite.

Cleaned up, the carpet is beautiful and seemingly indestructible. What's more, the carpet can move itself. It can even fly!

Thus begins an adventure that takes the reader to an island of temples swarming with djinn, which severely tests the greed and desire of Amesh, who is extremely poor. There are wishes granted, and a confrontation with the third race of the world, the Anulakai, who defeated the djinn in the last battle of the world. As Sara strives to find out more about her connection with the carpet, will she be able to keep her friend from becoming enslaved by the djinn? Even more, will she be able to find out what her own ultimate destiny is?

This was an enjoyable read. Sara was rather bratty at times; she even admits herself that she has an attitude. I liked reading about the folklore of the djinn and learning more about the power of wishes. There are some twists near the end that I didn't see coming, and the ending, while not a cliffhanger, lets the reader know that there will likely be a sequel chronicling more of Sara's adventures.

A good middle reader with mostly believable characters, fantasy, and some suspense as well.

QUOTES

Just his luck, he had to find a magic carpet that liked girls instead of boys. Plus he was stranded on an island swarming with invisible djinn and he couldn't find one to grant him a single wish.

"You have a great destiny set before you. You can try to achieve it, at great cost and sacrifice, or you can run from it and sink into mediocrity. The choice is yours."

"Did I ever tell you that you need to lighten up?" I said.

"...You were a much better girlfriend than I was a boyfriend."

"It was easier for me. I wasn't possessed."

Writing: 4 out of 5 stars

Plot: 4 out of 5 stars

Characters: 3 out of 5 stars

Reading Immersion: 3.5 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars ( )

What if genies really existed? And what if you happened to stumble upon a magical flying carpet that could take you to them?

Sara is visiting her father in Istanbul and is totally bored out of her mind. Visiting him one day at work she finds an unusual antique carpet. The next thing she knows she flying across the ocean to an enchanted island of the djinn.

But when Sara and her new friend, Amesh, decide to use the djinn without understanding their ways...disaster strikes. Amesh betrays Sara and leaves her stranded on the island alone. Sara must find a way to escape and return home, and the only way she can do this is to learn the mysterious ways of the djinn and the Carpet of Ka.

This is a great, fast paced book. Some of the dialog seemed a little forced, but the book is aimed at a young teen audience. There were plenty of twists and turns and all the characters end up someplace and someone different than when they started.

3/5 ( )

I feel the need to point out that this book begins with a number of MAJOR factual errors, as listed here on Amazon.

As a short sampling, let's just point out that Turkey is a modern, secular Mediterranean nation where women do not habitually wear veils (indeed, the proposal to allow women in university to wear headscarves was considered shocking! ATM, the requirement is that they attend bareheaded). There is no desert in or near Istanbul - in fact, Istanbul (which is NOT the capital of Turkey!) is on the water. And the list goes on - you'll note that the linked reviewer stopped reading after 30 pages or so.

These are very basic errors that could've been caught with nothing so much as a google search. The fact that the author did not consider it important to get these facts right is appalling.

It is not necessary for every fact in every book to be correct, people will make mistakes. However, it is insulting to read a book and find out that the author did not bother to do even the smallest amount of research. It's like opening a book and finding it full of typos. A few is okay, these things happen, but for the first page to be rittin lyk this becuz nobode tawt the arthur too speel? That's not good. ( )