Rapacia Dale E. Basye

Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck by Dale E. Basye - This is the sequel to Heck : Where the Bad Kids Go, which I loved my review . I love Bob Dob's cover art. It made me stop and take notice. Its a prefect fit for Basye's text. Milton wrongly sentenced to Heck makes his escape back to the living. Milton is adjusting well enough considering he was dead and in Heck. Now he is even more of an outcast. Milton is not worried about his status. He spends his time trying to contact his sister and finding a loop hole out of the contract he signed in Heck. Marlo a kleptomaniac is sent to Rapacia where the greedy kids go. The greedy kids are forced to live underneath one of the best malls ever, Mallvana. They much watch as all the good people shop their eternity away. Rapacia is run by Grabbit, a huge Frankenstein like rabbit who only speaks in rhyme. All the kids are drawn to the Grabbit and want to please it. Marlo is a star student, the Grabbit ask her to steal the hopeless diamonds. Marlo can't say no.

I love these 12 yr old twins, there is growth with these characters. I thought it couldn't get any better than Heck, I was wrong. It's official I am loving this series hard. Basye has found a great balance of laughter and thought.

One minute I am laughing

Milton search for answers leads him to a different kind of mall

"The Paranon mall was less a mall than a crazy old man's garage sale. Except that there was no garage. And, to the best of Milton's knowledge , nothing in the countless overflowing boxes and unruly stacks of yellowing paper was actually for sale. The crazy old man element, was spot on however."

Next minute I am reading this

"But the human body, after death, weighs exactly twenty one grams less than it did when it was alive. Many philosophers theorize that this must be the approximate weight of the human soul, which as it is invisible wehn leaving the body must be a form of vaporous energy. Milton was swaying with full body nausea. He wiped his beaded- sweat mustache. I'm just not the same, I may have lost some energy coming back"

There are many themes being discussed in Rapacia and Heck, making them both great book club selections. Ages 10up