The Boundless Book Review

 

 

The Boundless, by Kenneth Oppel, is about a seventeen year old boy named William Everett who is trying to stop a gang leader from stealing the very wealthy Cornelius Van Horne's will.  Will's father, James Everett, has been working on the rail road for three years, but that all changed when Van Horne invites Will to the mountains to see his father. When Will sees his father for the first time he is probably the happiest boy on earth, but shortly after an avalanche hits and sadly, Cornelius Van Horne died.  Three years later Will rides the Boundless, the longest train  in the world.  The first stop the boundless makes Will gets off to explore to the town and after a few hours he goes into the woods to pee but is stopped when he sees Brogan, a devious thief killing the security guard to get the key into Van Horne's funeral car, but Will grabs it first.  Brogan chases Will, but Will is too fast and climbs a tree so Brogan can't see him and after a couple minutes he realizes he has to go or the train will leave him, and suddenly he hears the train whistle.  Will sprints after the train and is able to get onto the caboose but then is attacked by Mackie, one of Brogans men, but is saved by Sticks, the other guard on the caboose.  Will explains his story and with a good night's rest and a good meal Mackie agrees to take him up to the next break car but realizes it's Brogan and tries to run but Mackie held him tight, with a little wiggling he is free and runs. Eventually he runs to the circus cars and meets Mr. Dorian and Maren.  Mr. Dorian and Maren agree to help Will get back to his father by taking him to shows slowly making their way to first class.  Will considers telling one of the brake men, but is stopped when Mr. Dorian spills his evil plan of robbing the funeral car to get a special painting.  Will agrees to help Mr. Dorian and Maren get the portrait from the funeral car, but as they were getting the painting they were approached by Brogan and his men.  As Will, Maren, and Mr. Dorian fight for their lives many of Brogan's men died, and eventually Mr. Dorian died too.  Brogan and Mackie blast the funeral car to get the gold. He forces Will, Maren, and Will's father to hop the train but before he can the avalanche hits and Mackie and Brogan die.  To end the book Maren finds out that Mr. Dorian left the circus to her and Will gets to go to art school.

A  great theme for this theme would be don't trust someone you just met.  My first example is when Maren steals Will's sasquatch tooth.  "He realizes he doesn't even know her name- And that she still has his sasquatch tooth!" (9-10)  My next example is when Mackie lies about being apart of Brogan's crew and tries to kill him.  "Will tries to wrench his arm free. Why won't Mackie let go of him?" (106).  My last example is when Mr. Dorian tells Will his plan of robbing the Boundless.  "But you do want something inside the funeral car?" "Indeed." "You want to rob the Boundless?" (205)  These are the reasons I think why this would be a great theme for this book.

I would definitely recommend this book to other seventh grade readers because of all the action and adventure. The Boundless is full of excitement! One of the most adventurous parts of the book is when Brogan approaches Will, Maren, and Mr Dorian as they were trying to steal the very valuable portrait. You will not regret your decision of reading this book!