** spoiler alert ** If I had to describe this book in one word it would be POINTLESS. If you're planning on reading this someday (not advisable) you should know I'm about to spoil the whole plot for you. For those of you that have read it (I'm sorry) or don't ever plan on reading it (the intelligent choice), here is my explanation for its pointlessness:
1. They go on a long dangerous journey to find some cure, only to discover that they already had the cure back home. When they get back the sick are already recovering. Collins tries to explain that if they hadn't gone on the journey Gregor never would've "figured it out". The only problem with that theory is that nothing on the journey helped him dicipher the riddle and find the cure. He could've done it just as easily it home and saved a whole lot of trouble. POINT-LESS.
2. While in the dangerous jungle, a couple in their party go on ahead to an even more dangerous part and bring back a single leaf of what they thought was the cure. Apparently the whole idea behind the single leaf was to bring it back to identify it, but how much brainpower does it take to figure out that Starshade would be shaped like a star? So instead of getting a bunch the first time, they all have to go back in to the deadly area, whereupon two of them die and all the Starshade is overrun by giant ants. DOUBLE POINT-LESS.
3. The riddle itself that is supposed to tell where to find the cure is so ambiguous that even after we know what's going on, the characters have to have a several page dialogue just to explain it to the reader. Shouldn't a solution to a riddle make you say, "Oh, so that's what that meant!" ?. After hearing Gregor's feeble attempt at explaining this one, all I was thinking was "Huh?". This last point was not so much pointless as lame.
So I guess I've used two words to describe this book and if you still want to read it, you may need your head examined. (Especially because I just ruined it for you.)
I've continued to read the Overlander series because I loved the Hunger Games trilogy, and people have assured me that these books get better. Ha! The only thing these books have in common with Hunger Games is Collin's overzealous anti-war agenda.
Sorry, Suzanne. Three strikes and Gregor is out.