Ponder Post: The Great Escape

The Great Escape by Natalie Haynes is simultaneously snarky and cute and reads like a novel written for young adults. Twelve year old Millie is bored during her summer break but that ennui soon ends when she becomes embroiled in a life-saving quest and exposé after encountering a talking cat named Max who escaped from a test laboratory. Yes, that last sentence almost qualifies as a run on sentence but then so does the entire book. Dilemma after dilemma, problem after problem, and tense moment after tense moment, fill the pages of this tale with a spy-like and wry intrigue.

First published in Great Britain in 2007 and copyrighted 2014 in the United States, the British terminology and mannerisms portray a bemusing quaintness to me as an American reader. For example a jumper is a sweater and the first words Max the main character cat speaks to Millie are, "I'm sorry, there's really no time for pleasantries. Could you hide me please and we'll introduce ourselves properly later?" Millie is joined by two other adolescents and the trio of amateur sleuths exhibit espionage skills in covert operations, computer hacking, and network infiltration worthy of James Bond or Jason Bourne. The book is a light-hearted read and, even though it is a grown up injustice that Millie and her friends set out to correct, the book never loses its awareness that the ingenuity, intelligence, and determination is coming from "kids". Respect is due them for their intrepid, creative actions.

I chose this book because I'd read The Furies, also by Natalie Haynes, and wanted to see how the author handled two strikingly different genres. My review for The Furies can be found in my post dated 11/3/18. The author is also a stand up comedian so I expected The Great Escape to be funny and it was worthy of many chuckles. The Great Escape also reminded of Word of Mouse by James Patterson, so much so I thought it had been inspired by that young adult novel. My review for Word of Mouse ©2016 can be found in my post dated 2/27/17. But The Great Escape pre-dated Word of Mouse by nine years so the inspiration may very well have been in reverse. The premise is the same, critters escaping from a test laboratory, but the plots themselves are different. I rate The Great Escape two stars; it had the redeeming features of humor, the novelty of a British environment, likable and well developed characters, and enough suspense that I was enticed to finish it. It did however read like a somewhat simplistic young adult novel, though it was nowhere described as being intended for that audience.