Tangled Web
Separated at birth and only reunited through circumstance and a savage crime, fifteen-year-old twins Alex and Tanner are slowly getting to know each other and becoming accustomed to the idea of being brothers, albeit brothers with barely controllable psychic abilities. While spending their summer vacation together, they find that their past has resurfaced and they are in danger--again! The boys concoct a daring plan to save themselves and bring down the threatening criminal gang at the same...
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Slowly getting to know each other after being separated at birth and only recently reunited, fifteen-year-old twins, Alex and Tanner, enjoy their summer vacation together but ...KLIATTThis is the sequel to Hrdlitschka's Disconnected, a book that rejoined fourteen-year-old twins, Tanner and Alex, through a kidnapping gone wrong. Back together for a summer, Alex and Tanner are ready to forget the mishaps that reunited them and forget the man who was behind it all, Hap, whom the boys believe is sitting safely behind bars. However, almost immediately following Tanner's arrival at Alex's house, threatening things happen, which lead the boys to the discovery that Hap is out on bail, holding a key witness against her will, and seeking revenge. While Alex hatches a plan to trap Hap by getting himself kidnapped, Tanner is eager to find out more about their roots, especially about their birth mother. Both boys are apprehensive. They have a busy summer trying to track down their past, settle their present, and make friends with a couple of girls. Tangled Web focuses on the central idea of family and how one defines family, whether by blood or by love. Hrdlitschka has really created a tangled web of sorts with the intertwining of various subplots and subthemes. She captures the reader's attention immediately with the strong bond between Alex and Tanner. In addition, she sparks the reader's curiosity about telekinesis, a trait that the twins share. Also, there are issues of violence that this story addresses in a realistic manner. This is a great coming-of-age story about two brothers who need to break free from the confines of their parents. It is a positive lesson on making decisions and how those decisions can affect the people around us. This story will appeal to all YA audiences. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2000, Orca,240p, 19cm, 00-100928, $6.95. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Shaunna S. Silva; Teacher, St. James School, Biddeford, ME January 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 1)
\ KLIATTThis is the sequel to Hrdlitschka's Disconnected, a book that rejoined fourteen-year-old twins, Tanner and Alex, through a kidnapping gone wrong. Back together for a summer, Alex and Tanner are ready to forget the mishaps that reunited them and forget the man who was behind it all, Hap, whom the boys believe is sitting safely behind bars. However, almost immediately following Tanner's arrival at Alex's house, threatening things happen, which lead the boys to the discovery that Hap is out on bail, holding a key witness against her will, and seeking revenge. While Alex hatches a plan to trap Hap by getting himself kidnapped, Tanner is eager to find out more about their roots, especially about their birth mother. Both boys are apprehensive. They have a busy summer trying to track down their past, settle their present, and make friends with a couple of girls. Tangled Web focuses on the central idea of family and how one defines family, whether by blood or by love. Hrdlitschka has really created a tangled web of sorts with the intertwining of various subplots and subthemes. She captures the reader's attention immediately with the strong bond between Alex and Tanner. In addition, she sparks the reader's curiosity about telekinesis, a trait that the twins share. Also, there are issues of violence that this story addresses in a realistic manner. This is a great coming-of-age story about two brothers who need to break free from the confines of their parents. It is a positive lesson on making decisions and how those decisions can affect the people around us. This story will appeal to all YA audiences. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2000, Orca,240p, 19cm, 00-100928, $6.95. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Shaunna S. Silva; Teacher, St. James School, Biddeford, ME January 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 1)\ \ \ \ \ VOYATanner and Alex, the identical twins readers met in Disconnected (Orca, 1999/VOYA June 1999), return here in a Tangled Web of vengeful drug lords, dysfunctional families, psychic powers, and adoption rights. Separated at birth, the fourteen-year-old boys were reunited only through a crime and their abilities to read one another's thoughts. Spending summer vacation together seems a good way for the boys to get to know each other. Suddenly, however, sinister men stalk them while someone sends anonymous threats. Meanwhile, Alex's violent adoptive father tries to return to his estranged family, Tanner becomes obsessed with finding the twins' birth mother, and the boys participate in a university study on twins. In order to bring down drug lord Hap and his gang, the brothers plot a mock kidnapping. Their plan goes awry when Tanner is abducted by Hap's gang and Alex cannot seem to hear his psychic call for help. This book is nearly overwhelmed with too many plot threads, any one of which would make a novel by itself. Although the first book about the twins was not especially exciting, the author seems to have overcompensated here. So much happens in this sequel that readers might not be able to follow the story. Efforts to join all the divergent plot elements seem contrived. For example, one of Hap's followers poses as the boys' birth mother and lures Tanner into the hands of the gang. The unattractive characters and stilted, clumsy style make this title a marginal purchase. VOYA CODES: 2Q 3P M J (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2000, Orca, 240p, $6.95Trade pb. Ages 12 to 15. Reviewer: Jamie S. Hansen \ SOURCE: VOYA, December 2000 (Vol. 23, No. 5)\ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 6-9-A sequel to Disconnected (Orca, 1999), this novel brings back telepathic twins, separated at birth. Reunited in the first book as a result of a mistaken-identity kidnapping, the 14-year-old siblings are eager to spend more time together. During a summer visit with Alex and his family, Tanner wants to search for their birth mother, but his brother does not. Alex then begins to receive threatening messages, and it becomes clear that their kidnapper, out on bail, wants to make sure that they do not testify against him. The twins decide to take matters into their own hands, putting them in harm's way. Exciting and fast moving, the action will keep readers engaged. Hrdlitschka resolves the adoption subplot in a satisfying manner, and uses the boys' telepathic powers in the climax in a unique way.-Elizabeth A. Kaminetz, L. Douglas Wilder Middle School, Richmond, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\ \
