Review: Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies by Jordan Jacobs

Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies by Jordan Jacobs

Synopsis: A legendary ghost, an ancient treasure, a mystery only Samantha Sutton can solve.

What happens when Indiana Jones meets Nancy Drew? You get Samantha Sutton, twelve year-old archeology buff with sharp wit and an insatiably curious personality. SAMANTHA SUTTON AND THE LABYRINTH OF LIES is the incredible page-turner about a young girl from California who is given the chance to follow her archeologist uncle to the excavation of an ancient Peruvian temple.

What she doesn’t expect, though, is the legend haunting this ancient site. When important artifacts begin to disappear overnight, Samantha must navigate the disapproving eye of her uncle’s acerbic assistant, the bungling boyishness of her annoying big brother, and the ever-present stories swirling among the locals of the hysterical spirit that wanders through the town late at night. Using her keen sensibility and her knack for mapping the unknown passageways of Chavín de Huántar, Samantha uncovers a mystery far bigger than she could have ever imagined. This is a novel for children (and adults!) who love history, mystery, and heart-stopping plot-twists.

Review

An ARC was provided by Raincoast Books. :) 

The book began like a great adventure MG story. I was hoping for a Scooby Doo like story with tons of mystery and adventure. And the book started great! It reminded me the 39 Clues in some way, especially the Egypt one. The details of the buildings and surrounding were well, detailed. It was not a bad thing but it did contribute to too much "yawn-ness".

The book was quite boring. It took a lot of time for the story to build up. The plot was such a good, fun, classic MG book but it just felt flat. I found myself constantly looking at the page numbers and wishing I was further along in the book. I guess you can say the "adventure" started somewhere around the halfway mark of the book. There was really too much "building up" to the story, too much "Ohh! Be careful!", "Oh, there is a strange person there" type of things. I mean I understand that the author, Jordan, wanted to create suspicion, and fear for the readers, but it was just too boring. But it was nice for almost every chapter to end with a cliffhanger-like suspenseful ending that literally didn't leave you room to stop. I also liked the little breaks within the chapters so it makes it easy for me to stop.

Samantha was cute. She was like a typical young girl who was dedicated to a dream. Her dream was to be an archaeologist. I remember when I was little and wanted to be an archaeologist. I remember I still had that dream when I entered high school. Haha, then I realized that I was not gentle nor was I patient. I really wish I have her ambition, I still don't know what I want to be. I think she reminded me of Amy from 39 Clues series, they are both very intelligent. Evan was like Dan from 39 Clues. He was "mean" to his sister and likes to get into troubles.

Overall the book was fun but it just took a long time to start. This was totally the type of book I lose sleep over if I am in elementary school/ beginning of high school. I loved stories like this one but for now, it was just too slow for me.