Opinion

      I just finished reading The Black Book of Secrets by F.E Higgins. It’s about a 14 year old boy named Ludow, who runs away from his evil parents and jumps onto a car which takes him to Pagus Parvus. There he meets Joe, a pawn broker.  Joe soon hires Ludow as his apprentice.

         I loved this because it is different (and a little darker) than other books I’ve read.  It’s also fun because you look into a little town’s secrets. For instance how the grave digger is a body snatcher, or how the maid of the richest man has stolen from him.

      I hated that it took too long for Higgins to explain the story. It took the author 16 pages to explain a 4 page thing, but to be fair it did have a lot of detail which is always good. Another thing I disliked it about how sad Ludow’s life is, but where would the story be if it wasn’t.

      It was very exiting in the book where Ludow escapes from his greedy parents while they are helping a dentist rip out his teeth to sell them for pennies each. It was really exiting when Ludow kicked both the dentist and his parents, quickly unloosed the straps that were holding him down, and ran out the building, through an alley way, and between two buildings in a space just one foot wide.  After he got past those challenges, he was able to jump onto a car and ride to Pagus Parvus.

    I felt connected to this story because Ludow is a 14 year old boy and so am I.  Although my life doesn’t resemble his at all, it is fun to let go of reality for a little while and let the story take you where it wants you to go.

    I think my friends should read it because they would find it an interesting story, a really unique story. They would like the plot of how he works with a secret pawn shop and how the little town has big secrets.

       I wouldn’t pick up another book by this author because it was dark, dark books are fun to read once and a while but not all of the time. I also wouldn’t read another book by this author because it takes too long to explain stuff.