Labyrinth

by John Herman

While trying to come to terms with his father's suicide, fourteen-year-old Gregory begins dreaming about a boy named Gregor in an alternate world and soon finds himself unable to distinguish his dreams from reality when Gregor is plunged into a dark underground labyrinth where he must fight not only for his life, but for Gregory's as well.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published June 25, 2001

Reviews

[Audrey Hacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really like this book!! on amazon many people said they didn;t understand the 10 little indians thing but that was nased off of the book ten little indians or then there were none.i loved this book! it told me about archtypes which i found very interesting a and i love all the parallell universe stuff! great read for anyone!

[Jake]

The book “Labyrinth”, written by John Herman, comprises two parallel stories of two boys. Gregor is selected as one of the “Golden Ten” to go to the “Mother Country”, and Gregory is a boy who is struggling with the suicide of his father and falls into committing crimes. Understandably, this was a very confusing book, the stories conflicted and it was hard to tell which chapters went with which character. I didn’t like how this book conflicted at the start with the two stories not relating to each other, however, I liked how at the end when the stories intertwined and gave a magnificent finish. The stories felt like I was reading two separate books until the end. For example, Gregor was selected as one of the “Golden Ten” to go to the mother country. This was seen as a great accomplishment. Gregory was having trouble at home with his mom after his father committed suicide. I really liked how Gregor began to gather more information about the Golden Ten when there was no clue what they were chosen for. For instance, the quote reads from another boy in the golden ten, Lewis, “What have you heard about MC, anyway? You ever heard about their cults?” (Herman 103). Another quote reads, “The most gifted guys of your generation! Where are the other Golden Ten - Can you tell me that?” (Herman 85). Over time, Gregor gains more information about the Mother Country and gives the audience enough to start to make assumptions. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a hard read with a great outcome. Sure it was a tough read, but it taught me that even if something is hard at the time, it can be very rewarding when you're finished. All in all, I am very glad I ended up sticking with this book as it paid off a lot. Going through a bunch of confusing chapters in the book, to understand which characters are which, then an ending connecting the two together was well worth the wait. This book was a great read, and I would love to read more books from this author.

[JET · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright book until the end. Well, there isn't really an end. It's like the author forgot to write the last chapter. You should not read this book, solely because of the poor "ending". It's super unclear and and just left me wondering what happened next. And not in a cliffhanger way, there was just absolutely no resolution—like it needed at least one more chapter to tell the reader what just happened. There is so much left untold after the book ends.

The book takes place in the lives of two boys, Gregor and Gregory (take care paying attention to the spellings of the names in this review, because they are two different boys), and I think the author would have been better off just writing Gregor's story. Gregor's experience journeying to and in the Mother Country as one of the Golden Ten is far more interesting than Gregory's story, which is boring. However, in Gregor's story, what you think is going to happen is exactly what happens. There is mystery surrounding what is going to happen once the chosen boys arrive in the Mother Country; you will have suspicions as to what is going on (John Herman hints at it soooooo much) and there is an extremely good chance you will guess it exactly right. He basically tells you what is going to happen without straight out telling you, which majorly takes away the shock value when it finally happens. The climax of the book happens near the end, and is short. It's so fast you might miss it.

Herman could've wrote only Gregor's story and expanded it into a full book (with a conclusion), and it would've been great. This book just needed more. It needed more time in the final situation Gregor's faced with in the Mother Country, and it needed more at the end, to explain what happened to the both Gregor and Gregory, because it just cuts off, like the author was too lazy to finish. The idea of parallel universes is interesting, but it doesn't go anywhere. We see the two boys' lives mirrored in their different universes, but nothing important happens. But it sort of did. Right at the end of the last chapter something big happens. But guess what? We don't know what it is. Because the book stops immediately after that. We are left speculating about what maybe, possibly, perhaps just happened. Therefore, all the talk of parallel universes and the boys' connection was made completely insignificant.

The book overall goes like this:
Building...building...building...building...CLIMAX!TheEnd.

[Brinlie Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

It didn't make any sense it was about a boy who believed in parallel universes so it has the story of him in 2 different places at the same time under different circomstances. Then when he had to fight the minotaur he pushed his friend in so the minotaur killed his friend. The book was stupid and had no point, if you have the chance don't read it. It was a waste of time.