Trapped

“I was standing, and then I wasn’t. My eyes were open, and then they weren’t. I was conscious, and then I wasn’t. I was out cold…as the angel descended to collect me… to do whatever it is they do with the dead, I could hear wings…the angel lifted me up and carried me away…there was more than one angel… I wondered which one was Gabriel.”

The novel Trapped by Michael Northrop is all about how seven high school students get trapped in their learning establishment when an unbelievable, record breaking snow storm hits the New England area. Over the next several days, the kids try to keep warm without electricity, find food to eat in the cafeteria, figure out how to get out of the school, and watch the snow in horror as it built up to just below the second story windows. While reading about all the things that go wrong for the kids, I had myself thinking, “what if this happened to me?” “What if I get trapped in my house or school?” “I live in New England, this could seriously happen to me!” “Do I have enough food in my house?” “Maybe I should go store and stock up on water and non-perishables.” When I would sit down and start reading, I honestly had myself convinced there was going to be no school the next day. But, I would realize that one, it’s not actually snowing outside, and two, me and every other student at Hampton Academy know that even if there was seven feet of snow outside, there would be no snow day, we would still have classes.

The character Elijah was my absolute least favorite character in any book I have ever read in my entire life. He was ridiculously quiet, but then when he did decide to speak, he would say the most horrible things. He said things like “we are all going to die in here, nobody will help us, and nobody knows we are here.” All those things were pretty much true and inevitable, but nobody wanted to think about it and he liked to bring it up.

One thing I didn’t like about the novel was that it was kind of predictable. Some of the things that happened were surprising, but a lot of the things that happened, were obviously going to happen. For instance, at one point the kids had a teacher with them. The teacher decided to go get help in the four feet of snow that had already fallen, do you really think he’s going to come back and everything is going to be all fine and dandy…NO! Also, the lights went out. Now, that’s something that had to happen because the novel is about a giant snow storm, but the author didn’t even make it exciting. All that happened was…the lights went out.

This book I would recommend to someone who is at least sixth or seventh grade, but only because of some mildly obscene language, and some kind of gruesome parts. Also, anyone who enjoys books about where they live, New England, would enjoy it. Oh, and if you enjoy a good book about natural disasters, you can’t miss reading this novel.

Michael Northrop, though not a well know author, is an author I think everyone will soon know and love. He has gotten much praise from his second young adult novel Trapped, which was published in Spring 2011, and he is now coming out with another novel. This novel, titled Plunked is a novel more for elementary school readers, but a novel that I suspect will suit anyone who likes a baseball read.