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My mom managed to get her hands on an advanced reader copy of this book by R. William Ritter. It’s the sequel to Jackaby, and since she and I and my dad and some other people in my family had all read and loved Jackaby, we immediately started fighting over the sequel once we realized my mom had it. My mom is currently immersed in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (I don’t have a review, but I highly recommend it), so she was more than happy to let one of us read it first. We both wanted it right away.
At the time, we were getting ready to head down to Orlando. My dad and I drove his mom’s car down (she lives in Florida) and our moms flew down to meet us. It was my first cross-country road trip and my dad and I decided to take turns driving and reading the book aloud to each other.
We finished the book in about a day and a half (it took us just a little longer than that to reach Orlando). That left a few hours for listening to music, after accounting for the fact that, while reading Beastly Bones, we frequently had to stop reading to laugh at various hilarious things that Ritter came up with. When I was trying to read aloud and drink coffee at the same time, my dad yelled at me, “Less coffee, more reading!” because it was during the book’s exciting conclusion.
Having never read a book aloud before, I can honestly say I have a newfound appreciation for the actors who read audiobooks. Getting through even one page without making some sort of mistake is nearly impossible!
This book was every bit as delightful as the original. Jackaby is still his old self, Jenny Cavanaugh and Douglas both get a few good scenes, and Charlie makes a return in this book. We also get some new characters who are just as much fun in their own ways and I sincerely hope we get to see them again in the third book. There had better be a third book, because this one ended on a cliffhanger.
The book gets its title from a dinosaur skeleton that is found almost entirely intact, but weird things keep happening around the dig site so Jackaby and his assistant, Abigail Rook, are called in to help out. Abigail, having studied archeology, is dying to take part in the dig. Jackaby is less interested in the bones, but of course they become relevant to the mystery he’s trying to solve.
It turns out the skeleton didn’t belong to a dinosaur at all. I won’t tell you what kind of creature it did belong to, but suffice to say it’s awesome, and then the events around the dig site only get weirder. There are a couple whodunnit cases and also a strange aura (that only Jackaby can see) that seems to permeate everything to do with the odd goingson around the dig site.
This book was an excellent way to spend a boring drive down to Florida and it was great to share with a loved one. Whether you read it with a friend or hog it to yourself, I highly recommend you read this book!
What about you guys? What did you read this week? Anything you read aloud to someone else? I want to hear all about it!