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Search for Senna (Everworld, 1)

Search for Senna (Everworld, 1)

List Price: $4.99
Your Price: $4.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: freaky tale of adventure
Review: I felt like I was back in high school as I read this book. Yes, I was one of those dorky kids who played D&D and read much science fiction. I enjoyed reading about David and his friends as they begin this story in the present day, but then get caught up in some sort of magical "pull" and are dragged into another dimension. The fact that the characters are just normal everyday kids who must dig deep within themselves to overcome many difficult, bizarre situations makes this story that much more compelling. I couldn't imagine finding myself hanging by my wrists several hundred feet in the air, facing a tremendous drop onto some nasty rocks below, but that is exactly where David and his friends find themselves when they awake in Ever World. From here the characters must do battle with an evil demi-god, big dumb-witted trolls and then win over an entire village of Vikings--all this is accomplished by relying solely on their wits. I think that the greatest spin on this series is the fact that they are aware of living in two different dimensions. When the characters fall asleep in Ever World they find themselves living life back home/in their "normal" reality, but they are cognizant that they are also living in a different dimension. I couldn't help but think of some of Piers Anthony's stories where characters are able to jump from dimension to dimension. I was tempted to read some other stories in this series, but found out that there are at least twelve or so more to go.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great fun read
Review: This book is wonderful 4 long plane and car rides. Once you read the fist one, you will not stop untill you have finished the entire serious. It shows great imagination and the constant use of other sources is wonderfull. For example, in one of the books, a character makes a statement thet Everworld is like Austin powers, "Welcome to Everworld, It's Shaggadelic!" Everwold is described in this book as a place where 4 normal teenagers are dragged to by their unusual friend, Senna. They act and talk like real teens, who are stuck and confused in a evil place where Aztec Gods rip out the hearts of their Viking ennimies, and where wizzards and knights are everwhere. I recommend it for teens like myself because it makes one (especially a teen) WANT 2 READ!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Everworld: Sweeeeeeet
Review: This book is just the first in a long line of a fantastic fantasy book series. Everworld: Search for Senna is created by best-selling author K.A. Applegate, the creator of Animorphs. I recommend this book to anyone with an active imagination or if they like to be on the edge of their seat, or both. I gave Everworld 4/5 stars. It's an excellent book but it doesn't give you all of the background info.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: W.T.E.
Review: Welcome to Everworld. A place the gods from all cultures created and escaped to so that they could control their humans. In Everworld, gods are larger than life, murder almost guaranteed and lunacy practically normal. Five teens have been dragged into this place where things that have only been myths and legends really do exist. Watch out boys and girls. It's time to toughen up if you want to survive Everworld. You want to live, you gotta use every bit of brainpower, wit, looks, you name it. If it keeps you alive - use it.

It started with Senna Wales. Strange, attractive but not beautiful, singular... and a witch. She is a gateway between the real world and Everworld. One morning, Christopher (ex-boyfriend), Jalil (classmate), David (boyfriend) and April (half-sister) see Senna disappear. They follow her and are dragged into Everworld. Only when they are asleep or unconscious do they cross back over where they are still living their lives normally.

In Everworld, they meet the Norse god Loki. With few possessions and only the clothes on their backs, they must escape this lunatic place and find a way to return. But there's only one way to do that - get Senna to open the gate and take them back. Senna's not so willing though and until they can convince her, they must survive. A new threat is also prevalent. Ka Anor eats gods and the rest of the gods are all getting worried. The group join a Viking raid on the Aztecs to destroy their human heart eating god Huizilopoctli.

This is a very enjoyable beginning and the main characters are quite realistic as the average American kid who has just been told that they are now residing in a different Universe where humans are the lowest on the chain of command. Each book is told from a different person's point of view and the reader gets many glimpses of that person's psychology and attitudes. I would recommend this to young adults/teens but older readers might find it a little shallow at times.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Much more than a kid's book!
Review: I got this book for Christmas about 5 years ago, and at the time I didn't really even plan to read it. It didn't seem interesting to me, and I was starting to grow out of all these kiddie books. But, a while back, I was looking for something to do, so I just decided what the heck, I'll give it a try. As soon as I got started, I could not put it down. I read the whole thing within 2 days.

This is a great story. It's full of depth and meaning, and the imagery is just amazing. You'll really feel like you're in this book as you read it. The story is of 3 high school kids, who are taken to this parallel world. One of the kids, David, is trying to find his girlfriend, Senna, who was also taken to this other world. As they search, they encounter a wide variety of beings, such as giant animals, Norse gods, vikings, even Aztecs. This world seems to be a refuge for past civilations that have all but vanished from modern society. Stranger yet, the kids seem to be living two lives. They are in this other world, but every time they fall asleep, they cross back over into the real world. It's like they're in both places at once.

The interesting thing about this is the effect that it has on David, the main character. The story is told from his perspective, and as he lives this double life, he begins to realize that life in the "real world" is rather pointless by comparison. These people in this other world are fighting in wars, working hard to survive, and meanwhile we are going about boring, mundane lives with no real point. David slowly realizes that this other life in this other world is where he wants to be. Here, he's a warrior going into battle. Back home, he's just a punk kid who goes to high school and works at a coffee shop. The experience changes him, and we see that through his eyes.

Perhaps I've said too much, but this is a really great book. I think high school kids are the target audience, but I think anyone could enjoy this. The book has an exerpt of the second part in the series, and I noticed that the perspective has changed to one of the other characters. I was puzzled at first, but I'm guessing that in each book, the story is told from different perspectives to show the effect these experiences have on each character. It may complicate things a bit, but that's a pretty cool idea.

All in all, I really enjoyed this, and I'd really like to check out the rest of the series. This isn't up there with the likes of Tolkien and Arthur C. Clarke, but it makes for a quick and engaging read.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good beginning to strange, fantastic series
Review: David and his friends have a pretty regular life. School goes well, home life is OK. There's nothing in his life you could call odd or strange. Well, except for his enigmatic girlfriend, Senna. Unlike her half-sister April who is open and bubbly, Senna is the sort of girl you could know for a thousand years and still not quite understand. There's a mystery about her that David can't penetrate.

That mystery of just who Senna really is explodes very soon into the book when David is mysteriously drawn to the lakeside to find Senna sitting alone on a rock. More mysterious is why his friends Christopher, Jamill and April are drawn there as well. There's no time to think about the situation, however, because without warning reality slips its gears and Senna is swallowed up by the earth.

Senna disappears and the gang finds themselves in a bizarre alter universe called Everworld. It's a dangerous world populated by Vikings and ancient gods, and our heroes find themselves smack dab in the middle of a massive conflict they don't understand and can hardly imagine. Teetering somewhere between dream and madness, the teens must survive, seek out Senna, and manage to return home from Everworld. Somehow...

"Search for Senna" is the first in the Everworld series by K.A. Applegate, the prolific author who gave us the immensely popular "Animorphs" series. Intended for young adult readers in Jr. High School and above (though I know more than a few adults who enjoy these books), the series is a quick moving and fast paced. The first book will have readers asking more questions than it answers of course, not the least of which will be what exactly IS Everworld? Having finished with the book, I could give you some hints, but you would find it so much more satisfying to read the book yourself!

Told from the first person perspective of David, Everworld's characters are deeply believable and inherently different. We can almost smell the fear and sense the confusion of the characters as they fight to survive in this new world so very much like our own, but yet so nightmarish. This may make the book frightening to younger readers but will likely immediately draw in older-yet-reluctant readers who find reading dull. Indeed, I've used "Search for Senna" with the book club at the school I teach at, and found that it attracted students who normally do not read for pleasure at all. The language is easy, the characters are believable, the plot is fast moving. We finished with the book within a week (no mean feat for some of my readers!) and the club has been all but begging to go to the second and third books (as of this writing, the series is 12 books long).

If you like fantastic tales, if you like being swept up in a whirlwind of a story that grabs you and doesn't let go (not even at the end of the book!), then the Everworld series is the perfect choice. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A professional read that I enjoyed.
Review: As a young adult librarian, I chose to read "Everworld" and was pleasantly surprised with it. The first book is told through the eyes of David who is sucked into Everworld with his school-mates Christopher, Jalil, and April while trying to find Senna, April's sister and David's girlfriend. What happens to them soon after borders on the insane as they go from hanging on the wall of a castle to daring escapes from the castle, almost being eaten by a snake the size of an L-Train, and sailing with Vikings to attack Aztecs.

One thing I particularly enjoyed about this book was the notion of a "sub-universe." When the four would fall asleep in Everworld, they would wake in the real world and go about their business. Something in Everworld would wake them up and they would go back to what they were doing before they fell asleep. They were living in both worlds at the same time, meaning that they would go to school and work in real life, and at the same time, be in Everworld. How this is possible is not explained in this volume, but perhaps other volumes.

This was a fun read. Other reviews mention vulgar language and sexual innuendos, but I found none of this. This was a story written by a teen, for teens and it comes off as just that. I would recommend this book for teens looking for a good story with a kick of the unreal, unheard of, and unearthly.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy this book
Review: Search for Senna is possibly one of the most gripping and awe-insiring books I have ever read. Growing up I read adventure stories where the heroes or heroines all worked together to find their way home again but Applegate is brutally honest by showing charactors that have real emotions and portraying the power struggles within the group beautifully.
If you are looking for a enid blyton type book where the main charactors get along peacefully then I don't suggest this book. However, if you want the story of what would really happen if four highschool students got sucked into another world then buy this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: FABULOUS!
Review: I loved it! I actually finished this book in one day! I think Applegate's mind is so creative. I just finished the series. It's so sad it ended. You have to read this book! On my top five list!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nothing like Animorphs
Review: This book starts out talking about David, the new guy. He just moved to Michigan, and is adgusting to everything new. He finds himself a girlfriend, Senna, who just happens to be a boy named Christopher's x-girlfriend. David and Christopher don't start off too well. but when they meet up with Jalil, a black boy, and April, Senna's half-sister, on an early morning down by lake Michigan; where Senna gets mystically grabbed by a giant wolf and sucked into another world, Everworld. Their lives change all together. Now David, Jalil, April, and Christopher have to find Senna and find a way home. But their experiences in this world aren't too good.
It starts with waking up to being hung by their wrists off a castle wall of a viking god. Having to escape that god, and get on the good side of a bunch of vikings isn't a picnic either. Once all that's over with, to make matters worse, the vikings are going to war against Aztecs?!!
To find out what happens you have to read the next book, because that is where it ends. Overall it was a good book, now I'm on book four. These are easy reads, but are very good all the same. This will be one of those books you can't set down


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