A review by sabbygee
Tempestuous by Kim Askew, Amy Helmes

3.0

This review and more at Sab The Book Eater

I'm not a big Shakespeare fan because I never really took the time to understand his writing. In highschool, and even now in college, we didn't really discuss Shakespeare in depth. We were only able to discuss a few of Shakespeare's works, unfortunately The Tempest wasn't one of them. Tempestuous tickled my curiosity so even if I had no clue what The Tempest is about, I read it anyway.

"Trapped in a mall." This book had me at the idea of being trapped in a mall. It's weird right, but it's always been one of my crazy scenarios. Assuming you won't get into trouble for taking things and messing the place up, I think it could be fun getting trapped in a mall... minus the creepy Twilight Zone effect of course. That's basically what I liked about Tempestuous, it's loads of fun!

The whole story takes place in one day, inside a mall. What I liked about this is that because the story line is confined in one day and in one place setting, it's like the story was developed nicely as the story progressed. I love it when a story line follows Freytag's triangle especially when it's a mystery because it builds tension at the right time and the resolution comes in smoothly.

I think Askew and Helmes did a great job at keeping the readers hooked! I kept making guesses as to who the robber is but when it was revealed I literally gasped and said, "Oh. My. God." A bit dramatic, I know. Aside from the mystery, it was fun how the authors were able to balance the teen drama and crazy antics with the mystery. I liked how Miranda and Caleb fell in like considering how annoyed they were at each other most of the time. I liked how the authors were able to paint a really fun picture of all their pranks and activities in the mall after hours. And I liked how thrilling the mystery angle was. It had the potential of becoming messy because of the different angles but it wasn't - it was the right mix of everything.

Tempestuous is an enjoyable read even if you don't know the gist of The Tempest and you should definitely give it a try. ;-)