Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 Review

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads: My name is Michael Vey, and the story I’m about to tell you is strange. Very strange. It’s my story.

To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is an ordinary fourteen-year-old. In fact, the only thing that seems to set him apart is the fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome. But Michael is anything but ordinary. Michael has special powers. Electric powers.

Michael thinks he's unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor also has special powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up this way, but their investigation brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric children – and through them the world. Michael will have to rely on his wits, powers, and friends if he’s to survive.

My take: Richard Paul Evans ruined Christmas for me one year. I sat in the corner of the living room, reading The Christmas Box and cried. In fact, I was in a rather obsessive mood and considered how it would look if I disappeared for a couple of hours and drove to the cemetery to see if the grave marker really existed. How much of this story was true? Then I calmed down enough to just be ticked off at him for making me cry. I hate contrived tragedies which is why I never watch Little House on the Prairie, anymore. By the end of it, Pa is always crying. Still, others have found his books endearing and he spends an inordinate amount of time on the New York Times Best Sellers. Fortunately, this book did not leave me in tears nor did it leave me with an uncontrollable urge to drive to Meridian, Idaho (it's a real place) or Pasadena, California. Not only that, Evans is a brilliant story teller.

I loved that Michael Vey, the protagonist has a neurological disorder. Michael has Tourette's. The kind that has him blinking and gulping in tics. I am of the mind this may come into play as to why Michael is so special but until then, Michael is an excellent example of a boy with a socially unacceptable disorder yet he does not allow it to paralyze him.

Character development for the main characters and many of the minor characters is well played. The humor, particularly in the dialogue, is unexpected under the dire conditions. Ostin, Michael's sidekick is like a astronomically smart, myopic, and slightly overweight Sam Wise. Everybody should have a friend as devoted as Ostin.

The antagonists are truly spiteful. Motivation is introduced but not clarified but there are other antagonists from other parts of the world we have not yet met. This is the first book of a series. What the antagonists are willing to do to gain control of the electric children is chilling and psychopathic. Although I will admit the psychological brilliance of it.

I completely loved it. It completely cleared the Mom-o-Meter.

Swearing - none.
Sex - none.
Drug use - some underage drinking met with surprise.
Violence - abundant.
Blood and gore - minimal, if any.

As long as we don't make this reader cry and take an unplanned trip to a cemetery, I will continue with this series.

Get this one. Really.