A review by neilrcoulter
Risked by Margaret Peterson Haddix

3.0

I thought Volume 5 of Margaret Peterson Haddix's Missing series was the best yet, so I was hoping that Volume 6, Risked, would continue to raise the standard. Risked is an interesting book, but it fell a bit short of previous stories. In part this is because by this point in the series, Haddix is balancing a lot of details, and by the end of Risked, the number of details seemed to become overwhelming. The story climaxes in the most frenzied, frantic action scene the series has yet seen. But the rescue mission requires just a bit too much suspension of disbelief. For example, the committee in the future (and Jonah and Katherine) has no reason whatsoever to make a hasty decision, because they can return to the past any time they want to. So the urgency the protagonists feel is unjustified. The "time hollow" has always been a tricky concept in these stories, but this was the point at which I felt that it didn't hold together in a satisfying way.

Also disappointing (I'm sure for the author as well!) was that the Romanov story has been solved since Haddix began The Missing, so the missing children are no longer missing. Because of this, Haddix had to do some ret-conning involving faked human remains. I understand the necessity of a plot device like that, but I found it unsatisfying.

Haddix hints at the complexity of the situation for the Romanovs and Russia at this time, but I felt that there should have been more context within the story. As it is, we don't really see very much of the bigger picture--only the Romanovs in their confinement (which is a bit dull, actually, until the climax). Unlike the previous book, in which Mileva Einstein was such a force to be reckoned with, re-shaping the story herself, this book doesn't provide anyone interesting for the time travelers to interact with. I know it's a relatively short book for youth, but I just felt all the way through that we weren't learning as much about the time period as we might. It's strange to me that it's only now, in Book 6, that Jonah and Katherine are beginning to do their own research on missing children. What were they waiting for?

One of the characters who is rescued was supposed to live on in that time period, but JB claims that "it turns out, it actually doesn't make any difference." Haddix still has some work to do in convincing the reader that history can be altered without the future ceasing to exist. I'm intrigued by her idea, first presented in this book, that certain parts of history seem to be "malleable," almost as if they want or need to be changed, while other parts are set and cannot be changed without destroying time. And I continue to be impressed with the ways in which Haddix allows her characters to ponder the ultimate will of God in their time travels.

Only two volumes to go in the series, and still so many questions! Will Second, in the parallel time, return to make trouble in this time? How did Einstein figure out that time had split in 1611? Will it become more obvious to other people as history progresses? Will we actually see JB's future time, or will it remain hidden from us?

Even though I didn't like Risked quite as well as other volumes, I still love the series, and I'm moving right on to the next book. I'm thankful for Haddix, one of the best children's/youth authors alive.

Cover note: In my last review, I criticized the titles of these books, which I find unhelpful in remembering which book is which, or what order they come in. In this review, I'll criticize the cover art designs. The original dustjackets featured generic photos which had some small connection to what happens in the story: a train on the cover of Book 5, for example; true, the characters were on a train, but it was hardly the main point of the story. But in the middle of the series, the publishers changed to cover art designed especially for this series. Unfortunately, the new art is possibly worse than the original. We now get almost identical covers for all the books, each one featuring a large clock-machine-thing, which resembles nothing at all in the stories. It's most definitely not an Elucidator, and it's a very unwieldy way to signify "Time Travel!" Shooting out from this steampunk gadget is a projected image, which is unclear and doesn't give much of an idea about what's in the book. I feel bad for Haddix--to have written such a great series and then have it obscured by wrong-headed publisher choices. Hopefully someday this series will get the cover art it deserves (and maybe additional subtitles that are more specific to each book).