The 39 Clues: Book Seven

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been able to go through another book in this series, but I think we’ve finally passed the halfway point! Well, the halfway point of the first 1/3 of the series. Holy biltong, Batman. We’ve got a long way to go.

The Cahill’s world-tour continues in this seventh book as the children find themselves in Pretoria, South Africa. They’re hot on the trail of the next clue but, in the end, discover quite by accident that their pursuit had been wrong from the beginning, though the real clue ultimately “soothes” their wounds.

Along with this new location is also a new historical figure, another name I was unfamiliar with: Shaka Zulu, leader of the 19th century Zulu Kingdom. I may have come across this name in like an H. Rider Haggard book in the past, but my being American means I’ve otherwise learned absolutely nothing about Africa’s history during my years in school. It is what it is.

Of particular interest to me as a father reading these books to my kids was the whole scene in Chapter 14 where Amy and Dan discuss their brains and what this whole violent escapade is doing to them. Amy says that her brain sometimes feels “like a dark room surrounded by quicksand,” especially during those moments when she wants another person (Allistair in this case) to die—or at least when she’s unhappy to find out he’s survived. The full conversation runs like this:

Something was bubbling up inside Amy, something so muddy and deep she couldn’t define it. “I wanted him to die down there. I never felt that before. What’s wrong with me?”

“Eh, Kiddo,” Nelly said gently.

Dan nodded. “Yeah, it’s understandable, really.”

“Is it?” Amy said. “I don’t understand it. You should climb around inside my brain, Dan. It’s like this dark room surrounded by quicksand.”

“I know what you mean,” her brother said quietly. “I hate being in my brain sometimes. I have to get out.”

“What do you do?” Amy said.

Dan shrugged. “I go to other places. My toes. My shoulders. But mostly here.” He tapped his chest and immediately turned red. “I know it’s stupid.”

“Not really,” Amy said. “I wish I could do that too.”

“It’s not something you do,” Dan said. “I mean something’s always going on in there, whether you want it to or not. You just have to, like, lift up the shades and peek in.”

Amy took a deep breath. The idea sounded so Dan. She closed her eyes and thought about the past few days. About Alistair and the hunt. About Dan and his body travel. “Lift the shades.” The quicksand was fading away. Relief washed over her, and she began to cry. “I hate myself,” she said. “I hate what I’m seeing.”

“Why?” Dan asked.

“Stop feeling relief,” she scolded herself. “Relief is weakness. Relief is compassion. Compassion is trust. Trust no one.” (Chapter 14)

These are dark thoughts for a little 13yo girl to have, but they’re necessary for the characters to discuss at some point in all this mayhem, lest they become “heroes” so comfortable with death that our young readers begin to emulate them. If the team of authors want to put these kids through such a ringer as this, I’m thankful that at least one of them, Peter Lerangis, was forced to grapple with the psychology of it all. Thus far these kids have experienced blood, bombs, and burns—and there appears to be no end in sight.

Another thing about these books is that my 12yo son is starting to lose interest in them. It’s not the writing or the action that’s causing his malaise, but it’s the endlessness. There’s no promise of where the whole series is going, and there’s really not even any review of where they’ve been. They rarely discuss the clues they’ve already found—or even how many they’ve uncovered—and there appears to be no benchmarks for which they’re striving, apart from “39.”

Seriously, if they’re going to handle just one clue per book and we’re only in Book 7, are my kids (or their dad) really going to hang out for 32 more of these things? They’re already running together for me, so the answer’s a hard “No.” I hope the authors pick up the pace soon, or we’re going to find that “a few weeks” turns into “a few months” and then more, at which point we’ll be done—without feeling like we’ve lost too much. I don’t want that to happen, but I can see the clouds are gathering.

All in all this was an exciting and emotional addition to the series. We’ll see if Book 8: The Emperor’s Code, re-sparks our interest to keep us plugging away.

©2023 E.T.

Read More from The 39 Clues Series:

1. The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan (2008)
2. One False Note by Gordon Korman (2008)
3. The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis (2009)
4. Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson (2009)
5. The Black Circle by Patrick Carmen (2009)
6. In Too Deep by Jude Watson (2009)
7. The Viper’s Nest by Peter Lerangis (2010)
8. The Emperor’s Code by Gordan Korman (2010)
9. Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park (2010)
10. Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2010)
11. Vespers Rising by Rick Riordan, Peter Lerangis, Gordan Korman, and Jude Watson (2011)