Harken by Kaleb Nation

Weak beginning, strong ending. That is how I would describe Harken in a nut shell. Of course as usual if you don't want me to spoil this book for you, there may be spoilers.

Harken is about teenager, Michael Asher. Michael is known as the 'Eye Guy' because of his unique ability to read people's emotions, giving him an insight into people's thoughts. In this world, all of Earth is controlled by lizard like creatures, known as Guardians, who take on forms of humans. They control everything: from the news, to the police, even to the weather. They Earth on lockdown without the humans knowing. Michael finds himself caught up in this world and discovers that he is actually one of them. He is a Guardian.

The plot was what really intrigued me. I am a sucker for conspiracy theories and Kaleb Nation is a master at self promotion, so he intrigued me from the start. I've followed Kaleb's progress on the book on his youtube page for nearly the whole time he was writing it and none of us 'Nationeers' (as us fans of Kaleb Nation are called) knew what the name of it was... it was called #thesecretkalebbook (yes complete with the hashtag). The history around the book was a complete mystery to us. Kaleb self promoted his book through word of mouth via social network sites. We were all excited about the book. Which is why I really, really wanted to like the book.



As I said up above: weak beginning, strong ending. The beginning was kind of dull. I like my attention to be captured on the first chapter. Usually if a book bores me after the first chapter I won't really make an attempt to read it. But it's Kaleb, so I felt inclined to read it.

From the beginning to the middle it's kind of drag and didn't really peak my interest. I felt like I couldn't connect to the character of Michael, despite the point of view being in first person. Kaleb writes Michael out to be a very distant narrative, giving far too much detail into little things and spending too much time on cars. That is my one complaint about the book is that it felt like a car commercial in book form. Every car is given its proper name (Maseratti, BMW, etc.). Not that I don't have a problem with that, but I never like brand names in novels, but that's just a personal preference.
But towards the end you begin to see the arrogant 'Eye Guy' change. Michael isn't just a stationary character, he learns from his mistakes.
The supporting characters, Callista and Thad, are strong and could stand on their own, but did not take the spotlight away from the main character. I was worried that Callista would be the typical main character's love interest, but there is more to her. She is tough, but there is a part of her that is scared and weak. Thad is humorous, but can be serious. He's not just the clown, in the book just for laughs. He does actually play a role in the book.
I thought Kaleb did a good job on making unique and strong characters; they are strong, but they are still kids, they do have weaknesses and fears.
But the emotions just were not there.

For a young adult novel the writing seemed vaguely immature; too mature for tweens or children and little immature for young adults.

I gave Harken three stars on Goodreads, because of its strong ending and growth his characters went through. There is going to be a second book that I am definitely going to buy as soon as it comes out. But I hope that Kaleb makes a more emotional connection with his audience and keeps the whole book strong instead of just bits and pieces of it.