Swipe, Sneak & Storm: A Collective Review, Part 1

(Contrary to my normal procedures, I will review all three books at the same time, and as a result, my entire review will be posted over three days to keep the posts’ length manageable.)

Titles: Swipe

           Sneak
        Storm
Series: Swipe, books 1 through 3
Author: Evan Angler
Genre: Tween End Times
 

Book trailer for Swipe:

A nearly thirteen-year-old boy sets out to track down the shadows tracking him.

Excerpt from “Logan Langly, Boy Who Cried Wolf,” Chapter 1 of Swipe:

The last thing Logan would want you to know about him was that he was afraid of the dark.

But Logan was afraid of the dark, and if you ever asked him about it, ever brought it up to his face and maybe teased him a little even, he’d stop you right where you stood and tell you it was for a very good reason.

It was because Logan Paul Langly was being watched.

He didn’t know who, and he didn’t know how. But every night, when Dad pulled up the covers, turned out the light, and shut the door behind him after demanding sweet dreams and tight sleep, Logan Paul Langly found himself on the wrong end of a spyglass.

So when Logan awoke with a start—even in the comfort of his own bed, even in the warmth of the late-summer evening that was anything but dark and stormy, the weekend before his first day of eighth grade—it was with well-worn urgency that he sat up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and scanned the room for signs of intrusion.

 

Book trailer for Sneak:

A thirteen-year-old fugitive races to rescue his sister from a secret government prison.

Excerpt from “New Chicago, New Rules,” Chapter 1 of Sneak:

          Logan Paul Langly ran until his legs gave out and his insides burst with pain. He ran until there were sparks in his eyes and splinters in his lungs. He ran until he collapsed.

          The sun had long since dipped behind the skyline’s abandoned rooftops, and Logan Paul Langly slumped now against the side of a building that gave no shelter, under lampposts that gave no light. Ahead of him, outlined against the dying glow of a purple horizon, was an overpass, silent and slowly crumbling. This was the Ruined Sector, the outskirts of New Chicago, destroyed in the States War and never rebuilt. He was fifty miles out from Spokie. Another twenty from downtown.

          Downtown was where he needed to be.

          So Logan stood and stumbled on, blindly, paranoid, walking backward half the time, under the shadows of the dead neighborhood. A winter stillness held him at arm’s length from any sense of hope these city streets might have given him, but even in his exhaustion, he knew that this was progress. For the moment, he wasn’t being followed. For the moment, he wasn’t lost.

 

Book trailer for Storm:

A band of fugitive teenagers try to unravel the truth amidst political upheaval and conspiracies.

Excerpt from “Fight or Flight,” Chapter 1 of Storm:

 

The floor shook violently under Logan’s feet, its rug jumping and sliding in short, stiff bursts. The window to his side rattled, and he wondered if the whole door might soon fall off.

Logan leaned forward to the driver’s seat in front of him, peering over Peck’s tense shoulder at the fuel gauge, which jittered so much that the after-image of its soft green glow showed only a blur.

But he could still see the needle, point with certainty.

Empty.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Hailey asked from the passenger seat.

“Not if we want it to stay in one piece,” Peck said, but he pressed harder on the gas pedal even so.

Lifelessly, Erin bounced from her spot on the backseat and slid to the floor.

“She all right?” Peck asked, unable to take his eyes off the road.

         Hailey turned to look over her shoulder. “Not stirring,” she said. “Keep driving.”