York: The Clockwork Ghost

By: Laura Ruby

Narrated by: Adam Verner

National Book Award finalist Laura Ruby returns with the middle chapter in her epic alternate-history adventure—a journey that will test Tess, Theo, and Jaime and change their lives forever.

It was only a few weeks ago that the Biedermann twins, Tess and Theo, along with their friend Jaime Cruz, followed the secrets of the Morningstarrs’ cipher further than anyone had in its century-and a-half history—and destroyed their beloved home in the process.

But the Old York Cipher still isn’t solved. The demolition of 354 W. 73rd Street only revealed the next clue in the greatest mystery of the modern world, and if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to discover what lies at the end of the puzzle laid into the buildings of New York by its brilliant, enigmatic architects, they will need to press on.

But doing so could prove even more dangerous than they know. It is clear that the Morningstarr twins marshaled all the strange technology they had spent their lives creating in the construction of the Cipher, and that technology has its own plans for those who pursue it.

It's also clear that Tess, Theo, and Jaime are not the only ones on the trail of the treasure. As enemies both known and unknown close in on them from all sides and the very foundations of the city seem to crumble around them, they will have to ask themselves how far they will go to change the unchangeable—and whether the price of knowing the secrets of the Morningstarrs is one they are willing to pay.

Great follow up

Once again, middle grade mysteries rock! They're so much fun and not weighed down with too much dialogue and paced well. There is so much going on in this book and even when we get clues, there's more questions. I also loved that we got random points of view, like Rocket the raccoon and Candy the blonde woman lol. This book didn't have the urgency of the first, there's no deadline to solving the cipher and so it was a little slower. I still had fun listening to it and even laughed a couple times, especially at Oh No. I can't wait for the conclusion to see if my theories are correct and find out if they solve the cipher!

Too Political

I grabbed book 2 in the Cipher series because book one was amazing and had a cliff hanger ending, but man.. where's the story instead of the politics in this book? Why do characters suddenly have a new skin colour? Why are all the white men evil? Why are all the white woman who don't have power jobs mean? Why are the children of color described kindly while the children of pasty white described as "some white kid"?

It really feels like the author felt need to hit on every buzz word of the 2018/19 in order to write a book she felt would sell and sell well. In doing so the story is lost. We get to hear 2 minutes of forward progress followed by 5 minutes of false information about the history of the police. We hear 30 seconds of character development, followed by another 5 minutes of information on feminism. Another minute of story action, and then we are drowning in the evils of the average white male again. It's made it very irritating to listen to this book.

I read/listen to books to escape the drama of the political world, and when a book drowns us in that same nonsense it lands right back on the shelf. I rarely.