Review: The Magnificent 12: The Key - Michael Grant

Where I got it: ARC won from publisher
Rating: 3.5 stars  
Cover Rating: 3 stars (It's okay. I like the creep factor that I didn't see right away.)
Genre: Middle Grade
Publication Date: August 21, 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Page Count: 277 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads
Sequel to: The Call and The Trap

Mack is still trying to assemble the Magnificent 12 when he finds himself captured by a thousand-year-old bad guy in a hidden castle. Needless to say, things are not going to well for Mack. Luckily though, he's not alone and a few Vargran words might help him and the other Magnifica escape and join up with a few more with the Enlightened Puissance. First though, they must find the other half of the key. The key will help them defeat the pale queen...unless they can't get all of the Magnifica recruited. Danger awaits them and they will have to learn to all work together in order to defeat the villains and get to the Pale Queen in order to save the world.

From the very first sentence in this installment, you are swept into a dangerous situation. Mack is on the cusp between life and imminent death. Just because he's the hero, doesn't mean he's immortal. We find the Magnifica in Scotland this time, working to get the second half of the key that will help them stop the Pale Queen. We also see a lot of Mack's golem in this book. He's stuck at home and Risky goes to visit him. Risky isn't a very nice person, so this isn't necessarily a very nice visit. Risky stops by to lay down some evil groundwork so that she may use the golem for her own devices. Mack has a lot on his plate though and can't be bothered to figure out what's going on with his golem. He's too busy trying not to get himself or any of the Magnifica (and Stefan) killed. This proves to be trickier than they originally thought though, because lots of people don't want to see them succeed and all their enemies come to find them.

Again this book was quite humorous. I loved all the footnotes. I'm a huge fan of books that use footnotes in both serious or comical ways. There was a bit of technology name-dropping in this novel. Twitter, iPhone, YouTube, Google+ etc... which seemed a bit unnecessary. Seems like it could have been mostly avoided by saying cell phone, social networks and maybe just using YouTube. I don't know, I just feel like it dates the book a bit. Every now and then I come across a book that uses MySpace and I just giggle at the outdatedness(Cause nobody uses MySpace anymore. Not even Rachel.).

This was a great installment in the series though. We get to see more of the golem's life which is interesting. There's also more villains and past villains that all come out to see what havoc they can wreak. I'm a little confused on where a couple of the evil-doers got to at the end of the book. They were coming to fight and then... disappeared it seems. There seemed to be no more mention of them. If you're reading this series, make sure you pick this one up. It's just as good as the last ones and will make you crave more of the Magnificent 12.

First Line:
"'Let me out of here, you crazy old man!' Mack cried."

Favorite Line:
"If you think about it, talking to a sea serpent whose very existence is in doubt is not an easy proposition."

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(doesn't have to be posted on a Monday)