Prophecy of Days - Book One

Gr 7—10—This novel includes enough New Age and conspiracy-theory material for several books but fails to supply fully realized characters whom readers will want to follow. Soon after her arrival at her family's newly inherited Scottish castle, Caity discovers a secret room next to her bedroom. Inside she finds a series of coded messages that she presents to her computer wiz dad and safe-cracker mom as her own inventions. Caity's father writes a program to decipher them, but Caity steals the program and then erases it. The codes name her as the catalyst for a change of the entire world in 2012. The 16-year-old spends the entire book concealing the meaning of the codes and her activities that center on them from her parents. They include an attack by a Bavarian agent of the FRO, a sort of Illuminati group; brief imprisonment at the hands of a person unknown; and a jaunt to Easter Island. She is aided in her quest by two wise Asian gentlemen, a hunky Scottish lad, and a mysterious Mexican man seen by no one else in the story, not to mention an origami-creating monkey. She is also assisted via the Web by her best friend back in San Francisco. Caity shows moments of heroism but also poor judgment and is generally shallow. It will be hard for readers to sustain interest without a more compelling protagonist.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI