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FindingJane
Jun 20, 2016FindingJane rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
While the hunt for the mystical grail was of interest, I was far more intrigued by the interplay among the sibling children. They came off as individuals, complete with the requisite squabbling, the seeking for attention, the yearning for adventure and the pride of being the first one to know or figure out something. Looming over them is their Great-Uncle Merry (short for Merriman Lyon), who is one of the more enigmatic figures out there and knows more than he lets on, to either the children or the reader. He just barely skirts the edges of being a portentous figure of doom or boredom. I suppose because it’s the children who are meant to hold center stage. Sometimes I was confused by their meanderings. When they were trying to figure out the lay of shadows cast by stones and landmarks of hills and ocean, I couldn’t quite figure out what they meant. At those points, I thought the book would benefit greatly from illustrations. But the overall story is exciting, even if I found the conclusion baffling. The grail wasn’t the object of importance that it had seemed to be but merely the prize in a chase. But there is a lost object whose importance is only vaguely hinted at and this frustrated me no end. What, exactly, did these people intend to do with a grail? If it was of such dire need to either side, why did it wind up sitting on a shelf for public display? The end of the story was such a letdown; I can only conclude that the whole thing is meant to be of importance in some later volume in these series.