Rebels of the Lamp by Michael Galvin and Peter Speakman Review!

Title : Rebels of the Lamp
Author : Michael Galvin & Peter Speakman 
Pages : 288
Published : May 12th 2015
Publisher : Disney - Hyperion
Source : Netgalley
Purchase : Amazon/ Book Depository/ iTunes

Life is a blast when you have your very own genie. But when Parker Quarry is shipped from sunny Los Angeles to live with relatives in a quiet New Hampshire college town and releases a 2,000 year-old jinn from an ancient canister "borrowed" from the university building where his uncle works, the biggest blasts comes from the millennia old power struggle he reignites.
Now it is up to Parker, his mild-mannered cousin, Theo, and their wiz-kid classmate, Reese, to stop a battalion of battle-ready jinn from re-starting an all-out war one with humanity in the crosshairs

My Thoughts :

This is a hard book to review. While I enjoyed it, I didn't love it and there was one main thing that made the book hard to love, which I'll get to in a minute. I'm going to list my likes and dislikes for this review and see can I put my thoughts into words ;) 

What I disliked.

The one and only thing I really disliked was the MC Parker. He wasn't a nice boy and I found it hard to connect with him. He seemed so selfish and self centered at the start that I was going to put the book aside. But I thought that maybe he would have some redeemable quality as the book went on, but no, he didn't grow very much! He was constantly getting into trouble and seemed to enjoy it a little too much. I mean he stole things, broke the law a few times and was just an all round trouble maker! 

Now onto what I liked.

I pretty much liked everything else about the book! I liked the rest of the characters (even though there wasn't much character development during the book). Theo is Parkers cousin and is the opposite of Parker. He was kind, sincere and quiet. Then we have Reese, whom I liked the most. She was smart, brave and nice. The 2 of them round out Parker and added more to the story. 

I really liked the journal entries, I actually found it more interesting than the main story. The idea of how the Jinn came to be was so unique and interesting that, for me, it overshadowed the other story. I loved reading about Visiroth and how he came to create the Jinn. How the first 2 Jinn were created was fascinating as well. How Visiroth born them was like nothing I've read before!! 

Despite the slowness at the start, the plot was pretty fast paced. There was a ton of action and adventure, with quite a few twists thrown in, that you will fly through the pages. 

There was quite a few laugh out loud moments throughout which was quite a surprise. Parkers wishes were often funny and brought levity to the story. 

Anyway, overall I enjoyed Rebels of the Lamp. It was an action packed and adventurous read and one I know any youngster will enjoy. It's a fascinating and fun take on Jinn and I know I will pick up book 2 to see what happens.