Max Quick: The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey
Review by Renny Fong
About the author:
Mark Jeffrey is the author of the Max Quick Series of books and podcast audiobooks. His first podiobook, 'Max Quick 1: The Pocket and the Pendant', has received over 2.4 million downloads to date. He has co-founded four internet companies and written two novels.
When not writing Max Quick books, Mark is CEO & cofounder of ThisWeekIn.com, a new web tv venture with Jason Calacanis and actor/comedian Kevin Pollak.
About the book:
Max Quick is a pickpocket, a vagabond, an orphan, and a thief. Even so, nothing about him seems particularly special . . . until one day when time mysteriously stops. Suddenly, nearly everyone in the world is frozen in time—except for Max.
Now Max must journey across America to find the source of the Time-stop. Along the way, he meets others who aren't suspended in time, like Casey, a girl who's never been on her own until now. Together, as they search for the cause of this disaster, Max and his companions encounter ancient mysteries, magic books, and clues to the riddle of stopped time. But relentless and mysterious villains are hot on Max's heels and will do everything in their power to prevent Max from ending the Time-stop. And the closer Max gets to the answers, the more it seems that his own true identity is not what he once believed.
Racing against a clock that no longer ticks, Max must embrace his past to save his future—and the world—from being altered forever.
My take on the book:
Max Quick reads like a video game in Mark Jeffrey’s fast-paced, action-packed modern day sci-fi adventure, Max Quick: The Pocket and The Pendant. This book will keep young adults (and adults, too) glued to the page as the plot leaps and whooshes. It’s no surprise Max had millions of downloads as a digital audio book.
The worlds of Max Quick, an orphan with a blank-slate past and Casey Cole, who wishes she could just be left alone, come to a screeching halt when time suddenly freezes. They are left to fend for themselves and figure out why they haven’t been affected by this phenomenon. As they venture along, Max’s past life becomes an even bigger mystery. Where did he come from? Will he be able to confront the demons of his past?
Full of vivid imagery and dialogue, one can easily picture Max Quick on the big screen or as a video game. This book is the first in a series, and it will be sure to captivate many young adult readers.
