Legend by John Brindley

August 2009, Orion Children's
272 pages, Paperback
Review copy

Children's, thriller

Cushions: 4/5
Daggers: 2/5
Smiles: 2/5
Tissues: 2/5
Yunaleska's recommended rating:♥♥♥♥♥

By beating the under-17s 200m record, Blake looked set to go far in the running world. Yet as his body grew taller and broader, he lost that speed. Slowing down on the racetrack led to a slow down in every other aspect of his life. So when the opportunity arises on a school trip to steal a serum which could make him run faster, Blake becomes a thief.

It isn't the serum itself which changes his life at the high-security lab, but the discovery of the girl he calls Chimera. Half human, with a tail instead of legs, Chimera wants Blake to come back and see her. Getting out of the lab was tricky enough. Going back in, where the guards would surely hunt him down, was insane. Yet back Blake goes, wishing to learn more about Chimera. The lab may not see her as human, but her feelings are all too real.

Created by scientists, it is hard to tell where Chimera belongs. She wouldn't fit into life among other humans. They would think of her as a freak. Her tail shows she belongs in water, yet she's afraid of it. Cloaks which render the wearer almost invisible to the fangs of three-headed dogs in the lab help Blake in sneaking around the facility. But clothes alone won't help him bring freedom to Chimera.

His father, who once again has turned to drink since his wife's death, doesn't believe Blake's story initially. Who can blame him? Where on earth do dogs with three heads exist outside the imagination? Slowly Blake's father begins to investigate where his son is creeping off to. When the lab is locked down with Blake inside, his father does all he can to help his son. But will it be enough for Chimera, and her close companion Ridley the monkey, to find their rightful place in the world? A world where scientists have created other creatures beside Chimera, which are worse than the three-headed dogs?

The action of this thriller had me nervously turning over each page. I cried when tragedy strikes a main character - no I'm not saying who! I liked how the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter varied depending which part of the book it was in. The issue of creating life using scientific advancements is a topical issue, and I like the theme of ethics and morality explored in this story. It will make any reader think about their view on these issues. The changing relationship between father and son, and the lengths the people behind the lab's existence went to keep their experiments secret is keeping Legend on my long list of book recommendations.

John Brindley has his own website here, with details of his other books.

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