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Sender Unknown
Be sure to read the fine print before you order... Mark graduates high school at age fourteen but instead of going on to become a successful computer wizard, he becomes a fix-it man who is content to live a low-key life. But one day he decides to change all that. He gets a real job, wearing suits and business shoes instead of T-shirts and sneakers. And when he buys a house - a very old house - something very odd begins to happen. He receives catalogs. Not just any catalogs, but the most obscure toy catalogs he has ever seen. And then on a whim, he decided to order from one of the them. Action figures. Maybe he should have thrown the catalogs away, because now he has his hands full - and there are no refunds and no returns. Too late, he remembers the old Let the Buyer Beware!
258 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
9 people are currently reading
218 people want to read
About the author
Sallie Lowenstein
12 books3 followersUS author of tales for younger children and Young Adult novels - See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
March 1, 2012
Every now and then I read a book with a totally unique plot ... this is one of those books. I absolutely adored it. I initially read it to my son (he was 8 at the time). I loved that we both enjoyed this story.
So in addition to the plot, the writing was far above average and the characters were well developed, which is a plus for me. Not on the level of Shakespeare, but definitely very stong on both counts.
Highly recommend.
So in addition to the plot, the writing was far above average and the characters were well developed, which is a plus for me. Not on the level of Shakespeare, but definitely very stong on both counts.
Highly recommend.
February 23, 2021
I used to really like this book when I was younger, but looking back now it's not... particularly great. I think it might have been the concentrated nightmare fuel that is the weird found art picture collages that separate each chapter. I gave it two stars rather than one because of this nostalgia rather than any particular quality.
The book stars Mark, an former child prodigy (who reads more like he's just done a line of coke in between every chapter than the eccentric genius he's supposed to be). He's wacky because he wears inappropriate clothes to work, leaves early without saying anything, and is very much a man-child. The book starts off with Mark moving into a sPoOkY old house. In this vaguely defined future, books and basically anything else printed on paper are considered incredibly outdated, so the slew of paper catalogues he gets every day in the mail is the scandal of the neighborhood (seriously, the neighbors and Mark's assistant/keeper are incredibly invested in trying to get him to cancel these mysterious publications). A subplot that takes up a good portion of this meandering first part of the book is Mark deciding, in lieu of proper chairs, to shellac stacks of these catalogues into (fugly and uncomfortable) stools. Mark works for a toy/game design firm, where he programs video games- the only thing kids these days play; his suggestions of physical toys get him laughed out of the room.
One day, while sorting the catalogues Mark starts flipping through them to find vaguely advertised children from fairy tales, public domain books, and generic character archetypes (like a 50's raygun gothic cyborg boy). He assumes that these are toys and orders several sight unseen for his sister's kids. Lo and behold, two days later a bevy of crates arrive and he opens them to find actual living children, each with an paper id tag. Instead of calling the police on this obvious human trafficking operation, he decides to adopt these children, who seem to be the actual characters they were advertised as. Wacky shenanigans happen for a while but are, frankly, so incredibly boring I'm having a hard time remembering them despite the fact I have the book open right in front of me. The tl;dr of this section is that Mark eventually collects a bevy of children that apparently no one questions, all of whom have some sort of special ability and are terrified of being cold.
Anyways, the eventual 'climax' that comes is that Mark has to host a dinner party at his house where he presents his next big idea- which he does not have because he's been too busy with the kids and snorting a kilo of cocaine a day. The party is going fine, save the occasional sitcom level mishaps, until the ongoing winter storm knocks the power out and blows the tree in the yard through the front of the house, blocking everyone in. The kids use their powers to save the day, and everyone is so impressed that nobody says anything about them having obvious superpowers. Mark comes up with an idea on the spot for an amazing """video game""" (see below) that is so amazing that it's approved on the spot.
The """video game""" in question sounds like your semi-senile grandmother trying to describe a late 80s side-scroller crossed with a text adventure game- it comes across as incredibly dated (even for 2002 when the book was first published) puzzle type game. You play as one of the characters from the catalogues, moving around a grid collecting parts for your house/spaceship/whatever. Along the way, you have to answer trivia questions about the book the character is from (you have to order the relevant book to play the game!) Correct answers get you better loot and vice versa. This continues until you get to the center and build your whatever. Even as someone who doesn't play much more than Minecraft and Pokemon this sounds like an incredibly boring rip off.
Anyway, Mark proposes that schools have contests where kids can read the books/play the game to earn a visit from the title character of their games- for example, Tarzan. Apparently no one will ever notice that these child actors truly believe that they are the characters; they'll just pass it off as the eccentricities of actors. Thus, all the kids in the cold storage can be let out- to be shipped around the country and exploited for money because that's better I guess.
The story ends with an epilogue set a few days later. Mark is going through boxes in the basement a few days later when he finds And that's it. No further explanation or exploration of this suddenly very interesting plot point. One of his kids, the annoying shoemaking elf one, calls out to him, and he throws the tag away as he leaves the basement, saying it doesn't matter.
Overall, the story, much like Fahrenheit 451 did for television, comes across as a screed about how society nowadays is too obsessed with video games and those computer-y boxes instead of good-old fashioned books. This is especially ironic given you are reading this review (written on a computer) on a website dedicated to books using a computer. Mark is incredibly annoying and the premise is interesting but is not explored in any depth or interesting way. I do not recommend this book unless you like hearing rants about kids these days and their pokey-mans and mortal kombats.
The book stars Mark, an former child prodigy (who reads more like he's just done a line of coke in between every chapter than the eccentric genius he's supposed to be). He's wacky because he wears inappropriate clothes to work, leaves early without saying anything, and is very much a man-child. The book starts off with Mark moving into a sPoOkY old house. In this vaguely defined future, books and basically anything else printed on paper are considered incredibly outdated, so the slew of paper catalogues he gets every day in the mail is the scandal of the neighborhood (seriously, the neighbors and Mark's assistant/keeper are incredibly invested in trying to get him to cancel these mysterious publications). A subplot that takes up a good portion of this meandering first part of the book is Mark deciding, in lieu of proper chairs, to shellac stacks of these catalogues into (fugly and uncomfortable) stools. Mark works for a toy/game design firm, where he programs video games- the only thing kids these days play; his suggestions of physical toys get him laughed out of the room.
One day, while sorting the catalogues Mark starts flipping through them to find vaguely advertised children from fairy tales, public domain books, and generic character archetypes (like a 50's raygun gothic cyborg boy). He assumes that these are toys and orders several sight unseen for his sister's kids. Lo and behold, two days later a bevy of crates arrive and he opens them to find actual living children, each with an paper id tag. Instead of calling the police on this obvious human trafficking operation, he decides to adopt these children, who seem to be the actual characters they were advertised as. Wacky shenanigans happen for a while but are, frankly, so incredibly boring I'm having a hard time remembering them despite the fact I have the book open right in front of me. The tl;dr of this section is that Mark eventually collects a bevy of children that apparently no one questions, all of whom have some sort of special ability and are terrified of being cold.
Anyways, the eventual 'climax' that comes is that Mark has to host a dinner party at his house where he presents his next big idea- which he does not have because he's been too busy with the kids and snorting a kilo of cocaine a day. The party is going fine, save the occasional sitcom level mishaps, until the ongoing winter storm knocks the power out and blows the tree in the yard through the front of the house, blocking everyone in. The kids use their powers to save the day, and everyone is so impressed that nobody says anything about them having obvious superpowers. Mark comes up with an idea on the spot for an amazing """video game""" (see below) that is so amazing that it's approved on the spot.
The """video game""" in question sounds like your semi-senile grandmother trying to describe a late 80s side-scroller crossed with a text adventure game- it comes across as incredibly dated (even for 2002 when the book was first published) puzzle type game. You play as one of the characters from the catalogues, moving around a grid collecting parts for your house/spaceship/whatever. Along the way, you have to answer trivia questions about the book the character is from (you have to order the relevant book to play the game!) Correct answers get you better loot and vice versa. This continues until you get to the center and build your whatever. Even as someone who doesn't play much more than Minecraft and Pokemon this sounds like an incredibly boring rip off.
Anyway, Mark proposes that schools have contests where kids can read the books/play the game to earn a visit from the title character of their games- for example, Tarzan. Apparently no one will ever notice that these child actors truly believe that they are the characters; they'll just pass it off as the eccentricities of actors. Thus, all the kids in the cold storage can be let out- to be shipped around the country and exploited for money because that's better I guess.
The story ends with an epilogue set a few days later. Mark is going through boxes in the basement a few days later when he finds And that's it. No further explanation or exploration of this suddenly very interesting plot point. One of his kids, the annoying shoemaking elf one, calls out to him, and he throws the tag away as he leaves the basement, saying it doesn't matter.
Overall, the story, much like Fahrenheit 451 did for television, comes across as a screed about how society nowadays is too obsessed with video games and those computer-y boxes instead of good-old fashioned books. This is especially ironic given you are reading this review (written on a computer) on a website dedicated to books using a computer. Mark is incredibly annoying and the premise is interesting but is not explored in any depth or interesting way. I do not recommend this book unless you like hearing rants about kids these days and their pokey-mans and mortal kombats.
January 11, 2015
This book is impossible to NOT fall in love with. As soon as I read the first page, I knew it was going to be "That book", the one that you cant put down. I've read this book probably a 100 times, and each time I still turn the pages, wondering what will happen next, even though I could probably recite the book word for word! I would recommend this book to ANYONE who likes fantasy or sci-fi. Even if you aren't one of those types of people, Sender Unknown is still something worth reading!
February 19, 2014
In the book Sender Unknown the author, Sallie Lowenstien, wrote the book well enough, but in the beginning she wrote in a way that didn't keep me hooked. She made it seem like nothing important was happening. Only when the rising action started I liked the book a bit more, but not because of the quality of the writing. I had to focus on the plot only and not the small details that help the story come alive in the readers mind.
The beginning showed the main characters life was like before he started ordering from the strange catalogs that come to his new house. The writing exaggerates how boring his life is by being just as boring. This shows how the author uses her writing to show how the character feels:
“At least he could move his own life from one point to another without the help from his office...How had a guy like him managed to end up with all these people involved in his life? He always liked being solitary.”-page 6 Lowenstein. Mark doesn't like his job and his employers. He wants to make his life more exciting. He takes action, the author makes her writing more exciting to match the main character's feelings.
Some of my favorite writing in the book was when the excitement just started. The character was confused and excited with the mystery.
“ He placed the crow bar just under the lid...The lid popped off without a sound. Staring up at Mark was a small boy with large pointy ears.”-page 41 Lowenstein. This action started all of the excitement because the little boy should have been a toy! Lowenstein made her writing more exciting as the main character opened the crates.
Lowenstein didn’t make the main character show much emotion. In the book she says that Mark loves the kids he bought but she doesn't write like he loves them. She writes like Mark is happy to have them here but would send them back whenever he wants.
“‘That’s a nice legend, but how do I send you back?’... ‘Here is the receipt and it says right there, no refunds, no returns.’” Closer to the end Mark says that he will never let the kids go back to the cold, (the cold is the storage where the kids were stored until someone ordered them) the kids are all afraid of cold temperature.
A great crash of pots reverberated from the kitchen and ten children suddenly raced down the stairs,weaving between the shadowy bodies of the party-goers…. ‘Mark we’re scared! Have you looked out the windows?’ she asked. ‘Why?’ ‘Everything is covered in ice! That’s why the power is out,’ Rollo exclaimed, pulling on Mark’s sleeve. ‘The cold has come for us!’- Lowenstien. The kids all hate the cold and are constantly pleading for Mark not to send them back.
One thing I did like about the book was that it never just got stuck on one point of the plot Sallie Lowenstien always wrote the scene then moved on to the next one. She gave some details, but not too many. Just enough so you will understand what is happening. In some books the author will go on and on about something unimportant like the fabric in a bed spread.
Over all I would rate this book a 2.5 stars out of 5. I gave it this low rating because I don’t really like the authors style of writing. The way she usually wrote things like: she said, exclaimed Elfet, and things like that after people talk, annoyed me. Also Sallie Lowenstien didn’t show emotion well through her writing. Sometimes she would just state it out like: I loved the feeling of Ashley clinging to my arm. I like when authors give little clues that you have to piece together and might not understand until the end of the book.
I would recommend this book to people who don’t mind if the writing is not the best in the world. People who like books where impossible things or people play a big part in the story will like this book. People in the age range from 12 through adult ages can read this book and understand it. Most people will like it but not love it, I really liked the plot line but didn’t like the writing and that distracted me from how good the book could be.
The beginning showed the main characters life was like before he started ordering from the strange catalogs that come to his new house. The writing exaggerates how boring his life is by being just as boring. This shows how the author uses her writing to show how the character feels:
“At least he could move his own life from one point to another without the help from his office...How had a guy like him managed to end up with all these people involved in his life? He always liked being solitary.”-page 6 Lowenstein. Mark doesn't like his job and his employers. He wants to make his life more exciting. He takes action, the author makes her writing more exciting to match the main character's feelings.
Some of my favorite writing in the book was when the excitement just started. The character was confused and excited with the mystery.
“ He placed the crow bar just under the lid...The lid popped off without a sound. Staring up at Mark was a small boy with large pointy ears.”-page 41 Lowenstein. This action started all of the excitement because the little boy should have been a toy! Lowenstein made her writing more exciting as the main character opened the crates.
Lowenstein didn’t make the main character show much emotion. In the book she says that Mark loves the kids he bought but she doesn't write like he loves them. She writes like Mark is happy to have them here but would send them back whenever he wants.
“‘That’s a nice legend, but how do I send you back?’... ‘Here is the receipt and it says right there, no refunds, no returns.’” Closer to the end Mark says that he will never let the kids go back to the cold, (the cold is the storage where the kids were stored until someone ordered them) the kids are all afraid of cold temperature.
A great crash of pots reverberated from the kitchen and ten children suddenly raced down the stairs,weaving between the shadowy bodies of the party-goers…. ‘Mark we’re scared! Have you looked out the windows?’ she asked. ‘Why?’ ‘Everything is covered in ice! That’s why the power is out,’ Rollo exclaimed, pulling on Mark’s sleeve. ‘The cold has come for us!’- Lowenstien. The kids all hate the cold and are constantly pleading for Mark not to send them back.
One thing I did like about the book was that it never just got stuck on one point of the plot Sallie Lowenstien always wrote the scene then moved on to the next one. She gave some details, but not too many. Just enough so you will understand what is happening. In some books the author will go on and on about something unimportant like the fabric in a bed spread.
Over all I would rate this book a 2.5 stars out of 5. I gave it this low rating because I don’t really like the authors style of writing. The way she usually wrote things like: she said, exclaimed Elfet, and things like that after people talk, annoyed me. Also Sallie Lowenstien didn’t show emotion well through her writing. Sometimes she would just state it out like: I loved the feeling of Ashley clinging to my arm. I like when authors give little clues that you have to piece together and might not understand until the end of the book.
I would recommend this book to people who don’t mind if the writing is not the best in the world. People who like books where impossible things or people play a big part in the story will like this book. People in the age range from 12 through adult ages can read this book and understand it. Most people will like it but not love it, I really liked the plot line but didn’t like the writing and that distracted me from how good the book could be.
July 7, 2011
I can't believe how many people liked this book! I thought it was horrible, and I don't say that about too many books!!! I read it a few years ago, so I don't remember the book clearly (thank goodness!), but I do remember thinking that the author's writing style was extremely basic. I would like to write a book someday, so when I read books, I pay attention to the author's style as well as to the story. I was not impressed with this author's word choice, voice, or sentence fluency, which was disappointing. Also, the scenes were unrealistic and often forced. I know it's science fiction, but I believe that even the most out-there science fiction stories have an element of "OK, I guess that could happen" if the author is a strong writer. This book definitely did not do that for me. I use it as an example to my students of why it's OK to abandon a book. I always tell them I wish I would have made the choice to abandon this book--the time that I wasted reading this book could have been spent reading a book that I actually enjoyed!
September 2, 2009
I like mystery even better than action and this book has plenty of mystery. The main character thinks he's just ordering toys to give away at a party, but he soon finds out that the toys he ordered are alive. I LOVED IT!
March 14, 2019
In this book a man named Mark adopts children thinking he is getting toys and the twist ending is grand.
August 22, 2013
Mark is a genius and computer whiz. He graduated from high school at age 14, but instead of becoming the millionaire everyone thought he would become, he became a fix-it man--and he was very happy. But at his class reunion, everyone was making fun of him so he decided to get a "real" job.
He is now making a lot of money, and his boss insists he get a car and a house and wear business attire. He finds a very old, but big, house and moves in. Every day he receives catalogs in the mail. They are all toy catalogs. He finds that whoever has lived in the house for over 50 years has received 10-15 catalogs a day.
He decides to order a few toys from the catalogs and is very surprised by what he gets--and there are no refunds and no returns.
This book takes place in the future when nobody buys or reads books and fairy tales, myths, and legends have been forgotten. It's a society where the government knows all about you and keeps track of everything you do.
I enjoyed this book. It was very different. The thing I didn't enjoy about it was the font. It was really hard to see. I can't figure out why they would use that strange font.
He is now making a lot of money, and his boss insists he get a car and a house and wear business attire. He finds a very old, but big, house and moves in. Every day he receives catalogs in the mail. They are all toy catalogs. He finds that whoever has lived in the house for over 50 years has received 10-15 catalogs a day.
He decides to order a few toys from the catalogs and is very surprised by what he gets--and there are no refunds and no returns.
This book takes place in the future when nobody buys or reads books and fairy tales, myths, and legends have been forgotten. It's a society where the government knows all about you and keeps track of everything you do.
I enjoyed this book. It was very different. The thing I didn't enjoy about it was the font. It was really hard to see. I can't figure out why they would use that strange font.
July 30, 2020
(3.5) A fun read that definitely made me feel young again. Sender unknown reminded me that the mind's imagination is exponential. The best stories come out of those who are willing to dream the unimaginable.
December 27, 2020
I am kind of confused as to what to feel with this story, it is kind of bizarre in a way. But it’s so beautiful and I find the plot unique. It was easy to follow through and easily caught my interest. It’s twists and turns left a fresh impression on me. 5 stars for the peculiarity.
April 20, 2022
Guy moves to new house that's that's getting toy leaflets delivered to it for over 50 years, noone knows who keeps shipping them or why. One day he gets curious and decides to order 9 toys but what gets delivered isn't exactly what he thought he was going to get
August 3, 2023
Sender Unknown is at its heart about understanding yourself and learning to find your own way amidst the expectations others have set for you. It's also a wild sci-fi ride that sneaks up on you partway through.
The story itself is engaging and interesting, and the twist at the end is spectacular. The mystery isn't solved in a grandiose and all-encompassing way, but the characters work out how to start to repair damage that was done without the usual high-action, ultimatum-wrapped scenes that I've seen in so many other books - rather, the characters learn to make solutions with their own strengths and limitations in mind.
This was an easy, engaging one-day read. My main complaint is that I don't really enjoy the author's prose - it's just not as well-written as it deserves. Plot-wise, it's a very strong book, but its execution is weak. Still, the story itself is good enough that I'm happy to round it up to 4 stars.
The story itself is engaging and interesting, and the twist at the end is spectacular. The mystery isn't solved in a grandiose and all-encompassing way, but the characters work out how to start to repair damage that was done without the usual high-action, ultimatum-wrapped scenes that I've seen in so many other books - rather, the characters learn to make solutions with their own strengths and limitations in mind.
This was an easy, engaging one-day read. My main complaint is that I don't really enjoy the author's prose - it's just not as well-written as it deserves. Plot-wise, it's a very strong book, but its execution is weak. Still, the story itself is good enough that I'm happy to round it up to 4 stars.
March 23, 2024
Quirky and magical, delightfully eccentric.
The bizarre cover and illustrations, though creepy, drew me to this book, which I found among giant bins of free books at a festival. I read it over a decade ago and it stuck with me as something so sweet, unique, and unexpected. I decided to reread it in my thirties and it didn't stand quite as strong, but for some reason I'm attached to this obscure book. The writing is simple, but that feels intentional and fitting to the childlike whimsy of the story. The bluntness somehow adds to the feeling and dry humor for me. It's not something I would recommend to my friends (my rating is as a children's book), but am absolutely excited to share it with my son. A credit to imagination that I feel lucky to have found.
The bizarre cover and illustrations, though creepy, drew me to this book, which I found among giant bins of free books at a festival. I read it over a decade ago and it stuck with me as something so sweet, unique, and unexpected. I decided to reread it in my thirties and it didn't stand quite as strong, but for some reason I'm attached to this obscure book. The writing is simple, but that feels intentional and fitting to the childlike whimsy of the story. The bluntness somehow adds to the feeling and dry humor for me. It's not something I would recommend to my friends (my rating is as a children's book), but am absolutely excited to share it with my son. A credit to imagination that I feel lucky to have found.
January 1, 2023
I got this book in sixth grade a millions years ago as a prize for a reading challenge. So it's not an understatement to say that this is a founder of my To Be Read pile. And let me tell you, I am so glad I kept it after all those years!
With a unique storyline, heartwarming and strange characters, and messages that people now days can connect with, this story was amazing. A few main things I love about the story, there is no bashing on advancements in technology it is just a fact of life that technology will continue to advance. However, the emphasis on the importance of relationships, self expression, kindness, and remembering to never fully grow up makes this a story I fell in love with. So much so that I never wanted to put it down.
With a unique storyline, heartwarming and strange characters, and messages that people now days can connect with, this story was amazing. A few main things I love about the story, there is no bashing on advancements in technology it is just a fact of life that technology will continue to advance. However, the emphasis on the importance of relationships, self expression, kindness, and remembering to never fully grow up makes this a story I fell in love with. So much so that I never wanted to put it down.
May 29, 2017
A bit slow in the beginning. but good
December 3, 2018
I love what this book has to say about acceptance and imagination.
January 8, 2023
Super interesting plot super Bizzare illustrations that are NOT CUTE AT ALL considering this is supposed to be a toy catalogue children’s story.
October 20, 2024
It was a slow start but the part where you find out he was from the catalogs was a good twist.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2015
Do you like mysterious books with unusual storylines? If so, then you'd probably enjoy this book called, Sender Unknown. ***SPOILER ALERT*** this books involves dolls that are alive, which was the main reason why I was interested in this book.
This book is about a man named Mark, he graduated at the age of 14 so this guy is really smart, similar to Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. But forget about that, lets talk about this book. So Mark, as really smart and he tries to live a low-key life after high school but decides to change that and work with suits and buisness shoes. Mark is also really rich becuase of his job and he decides to buy his own house that is really old but really nice. He now lives alone when he buys that house. The only weird thing about this house is that it is always getting catalogs which have action figures and
fairy tale toys. So, one day without knowing, someone had ordered some but Mark didn't know. It turns out that once he bought these he couldn't return these. One little twist about this is that these toys or dolls were actually alive, and they Mark starts to think that these toys/dolls were really just genetically engineered.
I was always confused when the author reffered to these toys as children. Whenever this was said I always thought there were actually children instead of toys. I didn't like how the words were pretty small. This made it a little hard to keep track of where you were.
I was surprised when the dolls were acually alive. This really surprised me becuase i didn't know they were alive i just thought it was about toys that kept getting sent to this house. I was surprised at the end of the book. ***SPOILER ALERT*** What happened was Mark's dad had actually planned all of that which was an experiment, experimenting Mark with all of those topys which really surprised me.
I'd rate this book 4/5 stars. It had a really good plot but there was jsut a few things that I didn't enjoy like the small words and alwyas reffering to the toys as "children". I'd recommend this book to people who like mystery books with surprising and mysterious plots. So, if you like those kinds of book then you should definently read this book.
This book is about a man named Mark, he graduated at the age of 14 so this guy is really smart, similar to Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. But forget about that, lets talk about this book. So Mark, as really smart and he tries to live a low-key life after high school but decides to change that and work with suits and buisness shoes. Mark is also really rich becuase of his job and he decides to buy his own house that is really old but really nice. He now lives alone when he buys that house. The only weird thing about this house is that it is always getting catalogs which have action figures and
fairy tale toys. So, one day without knowing, someone had ordered some but Mark didn't know. It turns out that once he bought these he couldn't return these. One little twist about this is that these toys or dolls were actually alive, and they Mark starts to think that these toys/dolls were really just genetically engineered.
I was always confused when the author reffered to these toys as children. Whenever this was said I always thought there were actually children instead of toys. I didn't like how the words were pretty small. This made it a little hard to keep track of where you were.
I was surprised when the dolls were acually alive. This really surprised me becuase i didn't know they were alive i just thought it was about toys that kept getting sent to this house. I was surprised at the end of the book. ***SPOILER ALERT*** What happened was Mark's dad had actually planned all of that which was an experiment, experimenting Mark with all of those topys which really surprised me.
I'd rate this book 4/5 stars. It had a really good plot but there was jsut a few things that I didn't enjoy like the small words and alwyas reffering to the toys as "children". I'd recommend this book to people who like mystery books with surprising and mysterious plots. So, if you like those kinds of book then you should definently read this book.
January 6, 2016
The writing at the start of the story was unfortunate. I nearly quit reading it. But, as some other reviewers have said, as the story builds and more things begin to happen, so too does the writing quality go up. It's still a little stilted and awkward, but it does get much better. The oddness of a 'future world' is just ever-so-slightly included: it's not obvious at first that this is a futuristic novel. Small notices about Universal IDs, the bookstores and references to book banners give you clues, but otherwise the world seems about the same as the one we currently live in. The characters, of which there are many, don't seem to be undeveloped, and they each come up in good rotation through the story - no cases of 'forgotten characters' that immediately come to mind. I really loved the twist at the end of the story - I actually didn't expect it, though perhaps I should have given Mark's talents.
I do wish there had been a few more answers to where these children come from. I'm also a little concerned by their 'solution' to the problem of having so many children out there, frozen and waiting to be ordered. There is some hint that the sellers don't have the ability to make more of these children, as Pete mentions, but there is still the problem of how marketing works: if more people are buying, then more product will be made. The story ends with the hope of having all the children eventually being saved; I'm just worried that the scientists or whomever will get their old machines out and start making more and only exacerbating the problem.
In the end, really enjoyed the story! Quick-ish read, not difficult at all, and the catalog pages at the start of each chapter were quirky and enjoyable to read along with the ideas brought to life in the novel. Glad I picked it up!
I do wish there had been a few more answers to where these children come from. I'm also a little concerned by their 'solution' to the problem of having so many children out there, frozen and waiting to be ordered. There is some hint that the sellers don't have the ability to make more of these children, as Pete mentions, but there is still the problem of how marketing works: if more people are buying, then more product will be made. The story ends with the hope of having all the children eventually being saved; I'm just worried that the scientists or whomever will get their old machines out and start making more and only exacerbating the problem.
In the end, really enjoyed the story! Quick-ish read, not difficult at all, and the catalog pages at the start of each chapter were quirky and enjoyable to read along with the ideas brought to life in the novel. Glad I picked it up!
July 17, 2012
Okay, so I get that this book was a creative idea and all, but seriously, I extremely disliked it. It was actually kind of creepy. I didn't understand all the random ads inside the book, and the font bothered my eyes. It took me about a month to get through, just because it bothered me so much. I don't understand why some people like this book so much.
August 30, 2008
This book is hard to describe. Futuristic and involves cloning, but is also a good story about being human, having kids in your life and being able to love people.
Want to read
January 24, 2009some kids at school love it! sounds like a great plot
March 2, 2009
Very enjoyable book with an interesting twist.
September 23, 2009
It's a great book! It is very suspensful and confusing. Great ending.
October 18, 2009
Starts out extremely slow, but becomes interesting once the "toys" arrive. Very good ending! Every loose end was tied up without anything seeming forced. Very good story.
Read
October 23, 2009waz kindaa freakyy and cool....
November 23, 2009
It was good. Mysterious. Cute. Short.
Read
January 15, 2010wierd things can happen fast
February 10, 2017
One of my favorite books.
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