City+Of+The+Beasts

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City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende Reviewed by Amelia January 3, 2012 (we're not dead!)

__City of the Beasts__ by Isabel Allende is an incredible book that everyone should read some time very, very soon. The genre is adventure/fiction. The story is third person but Allende allows you to see what the two main characters, Alex and Nadia, are thinking. I really didn't like Omayra Torres because... not I'm not going to tell you. It would ruin the story. Anway, I also didn't like Mauro Carias or the Captian. Alexander Cold has gone to visit his somewhat crazy grandmother Kate. She just happens to be a journalist for a magazine called International Geographic (which, of course, is a total ripoff of National Geographic) and is going on an expedition to the Amazon jungle with Omayra Torres (a doctor who is giving measel vaccines to the unseen indians called The People of the Mist), Mauro Carias (who is going on the expedition for a reason that was mentioned once and quickly forgotten), Proffesor Leblanc (who is a complete and total idiot), Ceasar Santos (a man who understands the customs of most Indians), his daughter, Nadia (who has a knack for learning languages and has a pet monkey), and a monkey called Boroba. He is Nadia's pet monkey who is extremely smart. Kate and Alexander are going on the expedition to learn and take pictures of a creature known as... "THE BEAST." He emits a paralyzing stink as a defense to get away, because he has the incredible speed of a sloth. Lately, though, he's been using it to kill prey- particularly humans. Alex and Nadia are all for finding the Beast, but when they're captured by Indians, shown an unseen world, and become members of the People of the Mist, some crazy things start to happen, and logic and science find one thing that they cannot explain. The characters are described incredibly well, but I do wish that Allende had mentioned their reasons for going on the expedition a few more times because they didn't stick with me at all. If you like monkeys, bone soup, and idiots wallowing in poop, then read this book!

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