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Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: First of all, out of the 1,046 or however many words that are touted as SAT vocab words, less than 10% are words an enterinf freshman (high school, of course) should not already know. I mean, 'pallor'? Seriously. The story is not the best, (...).
If you have money to throw around, go ahead and buy it. After about 50 pages, you might actually find a word you didn't know.
Rating:
Summary: Not Helpful
Review: I (...)like the previous person, was assigned this book for required reading. The SAT vocabulary used in the story is simple, 5th graders should be able to comprehend what these words mean. The plot is dull and insipid, and the author strains to use the SAT vocabulary, making the dialogue seem too unreal (no one that age uses those words in their daily vocabulary) and eventually taking away from the story, making it a hard and unhelpful read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Concept
Review: I could not put this book down. It is written very well and is an excellent story. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn hard word the fun and easy way. My vocabulary has improved tremondously by reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: SAT words are good but the story is bad.
Review: I'm 18 and I just finished reading this book. I gave it two stars only because of the amount of SAT words. The book is really bad and to make it worse, it was mandatory for a class I took. I was really disapointed at the story line and I was expecting a much better read. The SAT words were great and there is a lot of them, but I found it more enjoyable to read magazines even though there are much less SAT words. However, everybody learns differently. I learn SAT words with flash cards while other people learn SAT words by reading books. Its not a long book and it can be educational, so read it for the SAT words. Remember those SAT words but forget the story.
Rating:
Summary: Talent rises above adversity
Review: O.k. for those looking to buy the book for their kids, buy it. Now. I am a private tutor of high school kids of all ability levels and besides relearning a few choice forgotten words, I found the story engaging and Marantz well up to the challenge. This will work for kids of the academic version of little league psychos who have mastered the under 1500 guilt trip or anyone needing to break 1000. Buy it. The book teaches and entertains. Mission successful.Oh, Kaplan, DO NOT go away. You deserve chastisement (yep, it's in there) on two counts.
1. Your editing. The first 2/3 of the book feel like somebody did their best to geld the author and tack on the same phrases (can we have a word count on "laugh"?) in the place of inspired writing. There is clearly an external attempt to not trust the author and force the manuscript into something is for a 6th grade reading level with a lot of big words shoved in. Luckily you failed.
That's a serious accusation, and one I would not make were it not for the last 1/3 of the novel. All of it sudden it becomes a mature (but still kid-safe) book where Marantz pulls off some genuinely creepy moments, and affects the reader on a deeper level while keeping the stream of SAT vocab steady. Gone are extraneous phrases (characters are free to feel pain or fear without big neon arrows redundantly pointing at them) and only the quality remains. Read Marantz's bio again, and show a little trust. 2. On a similar theme, I would have loved to see a bit more of an effort for the writing community in general. He was serving two masters (well, three counting the orangutan editorial board) and pulled off a credible job. He lives in Los Angeles so with all of the major writers fairs and conferences going on, why is he not speaking? It's difficult enough to write for a target audience, let alone with additional constraints. Think of it this way: some of the best free-verse poets began as formalists; there's a lesson in his discipline. Forget the SAT kids for a moment, there are a lot of aspiring writers who could learn a great deal through his troubles. This would be an excellent text for college creative writing courses because of it's strengths and weaknesses. The production values of the book are excellent. Somebody must have cared. Now do yourselves (i.e. more sales), your author, and the writing community a favor.
Rating:
Summary: Not the greatest but still a fun way to learn ur vocab
Review: Ok The Ring of McAllister had a good plot to make sure you would keep on reading it (a sucky plot would mean that you won't learn any of the vocab). Hmmm but one problem was the fact that you hadta flip through the pages back and forth to find the meaning was annoying.... cuz sometimes i lost where i was in the story and also it interrupts the story which is very annoying but it still worked pretty well for me. I would recommend this to anyone hu gets sick of just reading through vocab lists and wants a new way of learning it that is entertaining as well as helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: A brillant way to learn SAT vocabulary
Review: This book was amazing. Ok, I admit, the beginning was a bit slow. But once you got into it, you just can not put it down. It's a captivating read that kept me at the edge of my seat. All the while, I was learning SAT vocabulary. It's like killing two birds with one stone!!! WOW
Rating:
Summary: Great idea!
Review: What a great idea it is to blend studying with fiction-reading! I bought this for my cousin who was taking the SAT and ended up reading it first. SAT words are used throughout the story. The context of use lets you pretty much guess the meaning of many of the words. The true acid test was if it helped my cousin on the SAT. She said that it worked better than blindly memorizing words. She also said she read the book a few times as a studying tool.
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