Review--The Keep of Ages by Caragh M. O'Brien

The Grisly Valley horror-themed amusement park has been deserted since the nearby nuclear meltdown made it a contamination zone. But Rosie Sinclair is headed to Grisly anyway, following an elusive trail to rescue her kidnapped family. As she crosses the country, she dreads that Dean Berg is holding her family hostage and once again manipulating her every move to increase her fear, priming her for a final, lethal dream-mining procedure.

As she struggles to outmaneuver Berg, Rosie can’t ignore the growing restlessness in the back of her own mind. The turmoil she feels is more than worry over Burnham’s unnerving generosity, the camera in Linus’s eye, or Thea’s fragile health. Faced with unspeakable suffering and otherworldly beauty, Rosie must discover how to trust her mind, her friends, and reality itself.

Caragh M. O’Brien brings an exciting conclusion to The Vault of Dreamers trilogy with The Keep of Ages! Things in this one were pretty intense with danger looming around every corner! It was a pretty fast paced read that I was eager to see through to its end!

Rosie is off to find her family before Berg can get to them, but she’s quick to learn that Ian is also on her trail. Though she soon learns that Berg is, once again, one step ahead of her. Her family has been taken and being hidden somewhere in an abandoned amusement park. Rosie will have to trust the help of a newcomer who is very acquainted with the Forge school and even the park where her family is being kept.

There’s just something about being in an abandoned amusement park that terrifies me and also sends a thrill through me! It’s not quite Scooby Doo standards, but close, as that amusement park was just closed at the time if I do recall! Lol! And there’s even a bit of horror movie style at play here because this is where the enemy lies in wait and where he has a secret laboratory.

What I feel is the most terrifying is that Berg is still Rosie’s legal guardian and he basically wants to kill her in a very twisted sense. I still don’t understand how he became to be her guardian, through the recaps of sorts, I know her parents somehow willingly allowed it to be so, but I think things might be somewhat twisted in that matter. But still, the mad scientist who wants to insert his mind into your body and boot your mind out is your legal guardian! That’s all sorts of nuts! And to think his employees are totally fine with what he does because SCIENCE! Makes no sense at all to me.

There was definitely a lot of tension in this one! Danger lurks around every corner, as I said! And things just get so intense in this! Running from the bag guy, running back to the bad guy, getting caught, escaping, around and around we go! It’s crazy! But a good kind of crazy.

I’ll admit, even after finishing this one, I still don’t quite understand some of the things that were happening. Science was hard enough, but to make it more neurological science and you really have me confused! Mining dreams, using dreams to put into other people’s minds, other personalities taking over said minds…it’s freaking mind boggling! I felt like when I was reading I was able to have a loose grasp of what was trying to be accomplished but turning around and trying to explain that to someone else leaves me flabbergasted! It’s definitely one of those kinds of reads; one you can enjoy for the most part but can’t put into words what’s going on to outsiders.

I was floored when we saw Ian again! He was kind of a creepy villain because he was a little obsessed with Rosie. But other than his initial appearance, he wasn’t in the story that much. I kind of expected for Rosie to be trying to outrun him for the most part, but it was not meant to be. I just thought it would’ve provided good conflict for Rosie, but Caragh had other conflict encounters for Rosie to deal with instead.

In this one we also get to have Burnham and Linus back in action to help Rosie rescue her family. I guess my initial theory that there was no true love triangle was somewhat accurate. While there isn’t a heavy play on romance in this one, you’re given enough clues as to who Rosie is going to be with. There’s no conflicting decision to be made anymore, or if there ever was a time. Oddly enough, I was okay with this. Though I will also admit I wouldn’t have said no to just a little bit more kissing! LOL!

The ending to this one felt a little bit abrupt in some sense. And I’m still not 100% sure I understood how it all happened. The conflict was resolved, but then there was still several pages left that presented a new problem for Rosie and her friends. But in the very end, I was pleased with how things ended. Sure I might wonder what happened in this sense or that sense (vagueness to avoid spoilers of course) but nothing that left me overly upset about the lack of answers. And really, it was more of “What will happen next with Character X?” sort of thing. All in all, a pretty decent read, if it was a little lighter on the science portions I might have enjoyed it just a little more, but still I don’t regret reading it at all! It set forth an exciting and suspenseful pace and I found myself most eager to see what the outcome would be!


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars