Incarceron

I did it again...I read a book and forgot to blog about it.  Maybe it's because the book didn't hook or thrill me like I'd hoped.  As a matter of fact, reading this felt more like riding a bicycle under water.  Slow going....

Finn is a prisoner in Incarceron, a living prison.  Memories haunt him and wrack his body with fits.  Memories he shouldn't have unless he was born outside Incarceron.  But no one has entered Incarceron in decades and only one person was ever rumored to escape.  The one solid clue that Finn holds on to is the strange tattoo of an eagle on his wrist.  Then one day, Finn becomes the owner of a mysterious crystal key that has that same eagle etched into it.  Finn knows that he must use this key to escape the prison that holds him tight.

Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron.  On the brink of an arranged marriage to the prince of the land, she has memories of her own.  Memories of another prince, the older half-brother of the one she is currently engaged to, who she feels died under suspicious circumstances.  He was her original betrothed, and even though she hasn't seen him since they were both children, Claudia is determined to figure out what happened to him.  In a search for information, she breaks into her father's office and finds a crystal key with the royal eagle emblem etched into it.

Guess where the story leads.....Not only did I have the "mystery" figured out well before I was a 4th of the way through the book, the seemingly endless descriptions of Incarceron itself slowed down what could have otherwise been a really good story.  Setting the scene was way to important to Catherine Fisher.  I also don't care for it when someone has made up a world that is completely unlike our own and has created new names for things but then does not do anything to give them context so it takes you forever to figure out what the heck is going on, if you ever do.  There's a sequel - Sapphique - that I'm going to try to read, but I don't have a lot of hope.