Bookworm Speaks! Loch Review by Paul Zindel

Bookworm Speaks!

Loch 

by Paul Zindel

****

The Story: Loch and his sister are with their father on a scientific expedition to track lake monsters. Their father's boss, Anthony Cavenger, a ruthless publishing mogul, is determined to prove that the legends are fact. Until now, it has been a fruitless exercise. But suddenly, on a routine exploration, a hideous water beast explodes out of the water, and a photographer, hoping to get the picture of a lifetime, loses his life instead. The plesiosaurs terrorize the secluded lake community, but Loch encounters a baby plesiosaur and realizes that the monsters only attack when threatened. So he risks his life-and the lives of his family and friends-to save the prehistoric creatures from destruction

The Review: A bit of background first: When Bookworm was in middle school, he became very fascinated with paranormal stuff with particular focus of UFOs and cryptozoology, the Loch Ness Monster was a favorite. He read every book about Nessie he could get his hands on, mostly non-fiction books. During this phase, he happened to come across this book among the shelves. It piqued his interest, but since it was fiction he passed it over in favor of books about the “real” Nessie. Eventually, Bookworm moved on to other things and this book was forgotten. Many years later, he came across it again and decided to finally give it a read. 

How does it hold up? Well…he probably should have read it in middle school. 

The primary audience for this book is in fact the intermediate level child. In particular, middle school boys. The monstrous cover is certainly what attracted Bookworm to this tome when he saw it. Unfortunately, this inside of the cover seems to cater to that one particular audience niche and the whole thing suffers for it. 

The plot structure is exceedingly simplistic and what little growth occurs for the characters goes by so quickly that if one blinks they will miss it! When writing a shorter story it is important to by succinct and not try to shoehorn in plot elements that the reader will find unsatisfying, case in point, Loch’s father has become distant and sold himself out due to his wife’s death. Not only is that cliche but it is handled in such a way that the reader can’t bring himself to care about him. Any passage where he appears, Bookworm just wants it to be over. 

The same problem extends to some of the other characters. The painfully stereotypical corporate overlord, Anthony Cavenger is an extremely boring villain. Just another ruthless, greedy, prick who is willing to do anything for money, power, and/or validation. We have enough of those in the real world, no need to make us suffer through it in a book about lake monsters. 

Even the main protagonists aren’t that good. Loch is such a generic character that the only thing that is really interesting is how he got his name. His little sister is annoying but has a good heart, and a both a so full of youthful optimism that they are able to see the deeper truth that the adults are just too bitter and cynical to see unless they allow love back into their hearts. This has been done over and over again in these types of books that it’s not even funny. 

One character that deserves mentioning though is Cavenger’s daughter Sarah, who is Loch’s girlfriend. She is obviously a spoiled child, if the dialogue from and about her is any indication. Nonetheless, she never really becomes insufferable and its clear she’s making genuine attempts at friendship. That was wise on the part of the author. Wealth does not always equal arrogance. 

The author deserves some credit in portraying the plesiosaurs in a somewhat positive light. It would be all too easy to make the monster just that…the monster. The dragon for the heroes to slay. That does not occur here. They are portrayed as animals. Very fearsome animals mind you, but they are trying to retrieve their young and protect their food. Their motivations and clear and honest, if not very destructive. Of course…it begs that question of why the lake monsters weren’t noticed before if they were this active. 

Which leads into the most glaring problem Bookworm had with this book: The gore. There is a lot of violence in this book and it is usually in the form of someone being bloodily devoured by the lake monster. Usually, the victim is some douchebag we don’t care about. Bookworm is somewhat insulted by the notion that someone being ripped apart and devoured was supposed to entertain me. Perhaps even the middle school Bookworm would not have liked it. Violence needs to be crafted in a special way in any form of media in order to be entertaining. The violence in this book is not crafted in a special way. The sole purpose of the gore in this book was to hook the prepubescent boy that was being forced to read it. It was unnecessary and way to over the top. Sometimes less is more when it comes to violence and this was too much. 

Final Verdict: Perhaps it would have been better if Bookworm had left this book in his middle-school memories. 

Two out of Five Stars. 

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