Loch

Rating:
Summary: "This Goes out to Mr. Austin"
Review: A boy nicknamed loch and his sister zaidee are involuntarily going on an expedition to a Vermont lake to look for modern plesiosaurs with their father, Dr. Sam. Dr. Sam is a marine biologist, and he works for a despicable man named Mr. Cavenger. Loch doesn't think they will find anything, but then, loch discovers a baby Plesiosaur and the knowledge that Cavenger doesn't want to just find the creatures, but kill them. Zindel does a good job in telling an epic adventure with movie-like detail! Loch does have many horror elements to it such as the plesiosaur killing some people and some chilling descriptions of peoples remains being found after one of the dinosaurs were done killing them, but its more of an adventure to save the prehistoric creatures with the main characters, Loch and Zaidee. This is another one of Paul Zindels best works; it is everything that I read a book for. It seems to me that a book that is about sea horror is a lot better than any other book. I would give it 41/2 stars out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Book
Review: LOCH is Paul Zindel's follow-up to his other big-thing-in-water story, REEF OF DEATH (unread by me). Zindel keeps the story on a level teen-agers will be into, with mostly one-dimensional adult characters (they exhibit, however, more life than anyone in the RESIDENT EVIL series), and a spirited, high-energy perspective of things to keep the sense of adventure high.

What's surprising about this Young Adult novel is that the attacks are not only violent, they are particularly disturbing. They aren't especially graphic in descriptions of gore, but I suppose it's more a more shocking experience when you get lured into the brisk, shallow YA reading state, and don't really believe that any of these likeable, surprisingly real characters will get ripped limb from limb... but they do. Even the "rich, control-freak idiot mogul" character is sympathized with, as he is the hero's "girlfirend"'s father.

The action is effective and greatly intriguing when it moves from the expected location of the lake to little hideaway places, like a hidden waterfall and the abandoned logging mill, which sets the scene for the book's exciting, ANACONDA-like climax.

Still, One can't help but wish that Zindel had maybe opened this book up a little more, spent some time on the characters and atmosphere. All that is great as it is, but I wanted more. But I suppose to draw it out to anything more than YA novel might be to sacrifice some of the qualities that set it aside from your typical Benchley fare.

For a young reader or anyone with an open mind for fast-reading, effective action fiction, this is a 4-star book, and no less.
But to a jaded reader of the "something in the deep" genre, it's a solid 3 and a 1/2-star read. Either way, it's highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT READ
Review: Ryan Anderson

The best book I have ever read was Loch, by Paul Zindel. There are many reasons why, too. One of the best things about the book is all of the Loch Ness monsters. It is about this boy who sees the Loch Ness monster, and no one believes him, so they call him Loch. Loch is a sixteen-year-old kid that lives near Lake Champlain. His dad works for this really mean guy named Mr. Cavenger. When there is supposedly a sighting of anything that not many people have seen, he then goes and looks for it, and tries to catch it. Anyway, there was a sighting of something in the lake that connects to Lake Champlain. Cavenger gets all of his employees, including Loch's dad, to search for anything in the lake. They find one Loch Ness monster, and then some more until finally they find a whole family of them. Another reason this is a great book is because Loch finds a baby Loch Ness monster. Loch went to the other side of the lake where all of the monsters were. While scuba diving, he sees some signs that a Loch Ness monster has been there. He is following its tracks when he sees that the tracks turn a different direction. It was because it was pulled by an undertow, and so was the boy. It pulled him into some underwater caverns, and then over a waterfall into a large pond. There he found a baby Loch Ness monster. The final reason I like this book is the end. The end was really fantastic. I am not going to it to you though because I want you to read it and find out yourself. Those are some of the reasons why Loch is my favorite book.

Rating:
Summary: The Loch
Review: This book is cool cause I like the way everything is put together. The scene is like dark and people are gone.Most everything is silent and then the writer that says that there is something in the darkness moving. The whole book is like that and thats what I like about it. It just keeps you wondering about what will happen next. In this book thecharacters dont talk on and on about nothing. They have a point most of the time. The ending was alright thats why i gave it a rating of 4 cause it wasn't to good. Other than that the rest of the story is the best part and this was probably the best book I read so far.

Rating:
Summary: Another great masterpiece by Zindel
Review: This book is very good and you will find it hard to put down. It is my favorite Zindel book second to Raptor. It is worth the time and is constant action. You will be asking yourself who is really the bad guy. The only reason I gave it a 4 was because I reserve 5 for books in which are absolutely flawless and I could read it twice in one day and it would be just as exiting the second time.