Summary
Ted and Kat have lost their visiting cousin Salim on trip to go up in the London Eye. He went up in the capsule with a group of people, but never came down. He apparently vanished into thin air and his mom, Ted and Kat's aunt, is distraught. During the course of the novel the two siblings grow closer as they journey through London to solve the puzzle of Salim's disappearance. One aspect of the book that makes it stand out is that Ted has Asperger's syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, and with it, a fascination w/weather patterns, even going so far as to listen to late night weather broadcasts, both traits that Kat finds annoying. The mystery is solved in the end in a twist that surprised even me (and I've read a lot of mysteries.)
Thoughts:
- Loved the cover above, the version I read had quite a different cover.
- Was intrigued by idea of someone going up in London Eye and not coming down.
- I found the brother/sister team of Kat/Ted realistic. Neither one is perfect and Kat had a natural annoyance w/her autistic brother that I personally thought was true-to-life.
- Reminded me of The Curious Incident of the dog in the Nighttime, which is an adult book narrated by an autistic boy, which I also highly recommend.
- I'll admit that at I did have a vague idea in the beginning of the story about what happened to Salim, (and was partially right), but the book did a good job of keeping me guessing to the end.
- Liked the unique setting of London, and the mentions of the London Eye (of course!), the Tube, the metric system, and the Celsius temperature scale inc. a mention of it "being 18 degrees and hot."
- Thought Ted's obsession with the weather added interesting elements to the story
- Found Ted to be an intelligent narrator despite being rather literal, and not understanding certain slang and jokes, for example when he hears about footballers (soccer players in Europe-well pretty much everywhere besides the U.S.) being sold, he asks why they are being kept as white slaves even though slavery has been abolished.
- Salim is half-Pakistani and his mom and dad are divorced, so for a time his dad is under suspicion for Salim's disappearance.
- Surprised that Salim and his friend Marcus, who is also half-Asian, were teased at school for their ethnic backgrounds. Even though it was addressed in Bend it Like Beckham (a great movie btw), I was still taken aback that it was still going on in the past five years.
- Was sad to learn that the author (Siobhan Dowd) died in 2007. All royalties go to a foundation, but I'm sorry that there won't be any more novels featuring Kat, Ted, or Salim.
Places in London I'd Like to Visit: (Please note I have never been to London before)
- The London Eye (even more so after reading this book!)
- The National Portrait Gallery
- Buckingham Palace
- King's Cross Station (for the Harry Potter fan in me!)
- Tower of London
- Picadilly Circus (Mostly just cuz I love the name)
- Big Ben
- Houses of Paliament
- Cabinet War Rooms
- Covent Gardens (for the buskers, aka street performers)
- The Globe Theater
