Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

Michael Vey is a 14-year-old boy that lives with his mom in Ohio and goes to Meridian High School. His mom told him his dad died when he was born. He was born with a superpower. Michael has Tourette’s syndrome and gets bullied for it. As hard as it is, Michael tries to live a normal life. Only his mom knows about his superpowers. At school, Michael gets beat up often by Wade and his friends. One day some boys beat him up while Taylor, a girl who he liked was watching. Accidently he snapped, pulsed and they fell to the ground and started shaking violently Later, Michael finds out that Taylor has a superpower also. She can reset people’s brains to make them not know where they are and what they’re doing, and she can read people’s minds. At school, Michael was called to the office and was accepted to Elgen Academy and was given a scholarship. Taylor also was offered a scholarship to the same Academy. Michael’s mom takes him, Taylor, and Austin out to eat for his birthday. While they were leaving a guy goes to rob them, and Michael shocked him. A guy and girl came up draining his power. He was so weak he collapsed. When he woke, his mom, Taylor and Austin were gone. While at the academy Taylor found her twin sister Tara. The other kids there also have powers. The 3 of them tried to escape, but Michael was caught and put into Cell 25 which was a torture cell. Taylor and Austin were also caught but were put into a cell with other electric kids. In cell 25 they tortured Michael by having Tara make him see horrible things. Later the 3 of them were sentenced to death by Zeus. When Michael was shocked, he absorbed all of Zeus energy and knocked him out. When he woke, Taylor read Zeus past in his mind and told him that never killed his parents and that Dr. Hatch tricked and lied to him, making Zeus want to be with Dr. Hatch. The kids blew up the warehouse, remembering they still have to find Michael’s mother. One of the other electric kids, Grace told the kids that she downloaded all of Hatches plans from his computer and stored it in his brain.

I think it's cool to have a superpower. I would use my power for good such as to save people. I feel Michael should have used his power more often. When Michael used his power to charge his moms car, it was cool and convenient. I wouldn’t keep my powers a secret like he did. I would have moved to NY and pretend to be Batman and save people in any chance I get. However by reading the book, Michael had good reasons to keep his superpower a secret. I feel his mom should have told him the truth of why he shouldn’t use his power. That way maybe Michael would have understood why not to use his power. If I was him I would have been smarter and not have been kidnapped. I didn’t feel bad for him because it was his own fault. I felt bad for his mother who was also kidnapped and had no part of it. Overall, I liked the book and would recommend it to thrill seekers. It was action packed and suspenseful. I would also recommend it to sci-fi lovers. This book had a lot of moments where you have to read the whole thing to understand the beginning.

Reviewed by Michael C. 8^th Grade