Shatterproof
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #4
by Roland Smith

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

First Berlin and then Timbuktu, Amy and Dan Cahill continue to jump through hoops for their enemy, Vesper One, trying to save the lives of their abducted friends and family members. Meanwhile, the hostages are hatching a scheme of their own.

For as much as I’m enjoying this series, I’m glad it’s a little shorter than the original. I really thought that the premise set forth at the beginning of the series—Cahills and friends taken hostage and Dan and Amy given various tasks to ensure their safety—would be a launching point to a greater story, but it’s really just been the same premise all the way through. Though Dan and Amy have traveled all over, been in and out of trouble, and scrambled to keep up with Vesper One’s demands, the hostages’ plight has gotten a little stale. This book did shake things up a bit for them, but I would have preferred a little more.

I like the team of Amy, Dan, Atticus, and Jake. They complement each other well, and I’m intrigued to hear more about Atticus’s role in the whole Cahills and Vespers thing. I expected there to be more about the ring that Amy was entrusted with at the end of the original series by now, but apparently we’re saving a lot for the last 2 books in the series. As for Amy and her romances, I could do without most of it. The surprising thing (for me) is that I do actually like a couple of these guys for her…which means I care about which one she picks, if any. Oddly enough, the one I don’t really care about is the one that is currently her boyfriend. In fact, based on how this series has gone in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out he was a mole. I also have to say that these writers are not against having a bit of a body count, which has been surprising in a series for pre-teens. Still, I’m quite invested in these books and look forward to seeing how this plot arc turns out.

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