The story was interesting but filled with convenient plot shifts. Rose could suddenly see when she needed to. Rose conveniently found the secret message when Max couldn’t. The sickly owl wasn’t sickly when she had to fight, but was at other times. Overall, the writing seemed lazy to me. But if the author was a little bit more creative or had given more important parts of the story more time, it could have been truly compelling. ( )

This was a pleasant read, as others have said. But, the end is disappointing. It is set up like a sequel was going to be done, but instead there is no sequel and this book ends with a TON of unanswered questions, so it's really dissatisfying. Even though Max (FINALLY) figures out that he is the Owl Keeper and the owls' power is restored, the story ends without us knowing what happened to his parents, what happens to the High Echelon, what happened to Rose's parents, and whether the miraculous return of the owls even means anything in the long run. Either there was supposed to be a sequel and there never was or the author just... lost interest? Didn't think her audience would care about the entire rest of the story or even notice she didn't finish it? Didn't know where to take it next or how to resolve the remaining so she just gave up and quickly ended it? I have no idea.

Also, I agreed with the others who said that Max is underwhelming, wishy-washy, grossly gullible, and had almost no self-awareness. But, as tiresome and annoying as it was I could see younger readers (target audience) not making these connections as easily and needing the added character of Rose to provide that input and help Max grow as he figures out how and why he was lied to his entire life. We also have to remember that this is a brain-washing story, which means that it is arguable that it would be painfully difficult for Max to make these connections over time, if at all.

Oh, and one other thing bothered me. When Max let the "special" skraek go, although I understood that in the long run it would end up saving their lives, my first thought was that, if his owl means so much to him, why did it never occur to him that letting the skraek go would put her in danger? Honestly, I wasn't sure which would happen: that the skraek would serve a purpose in helping Max and Rose later or if he would inadvertently cause the death of his owl. Because he didn't release the skraek that far from the owl and because the sole purpose of skraeks is to destroy things, especially owls and people, it wasn't clear to me why it was never a threat to the owl and this was never addressed.

If the book had gone on to tie up all the loose ends, I might've given it five stars, it really was a fascinating idea and well-written, it's just the end was so abrupt that it dropped a whole star for me. ( )

The owl keeper is about a boy named Maxwell, who finds a silver owl. Maxwell gets a disease which makes him allergic to sun rays, plus he always likes the dark. Maxwell's gran, or so he calls his grandma, use to tell him stories about the world before the destruction. Maxwell has also been abscessed with silver owls. But a cording to the high Elckton , the government, says that silver owls are extinct. A cording to his gran the owl keeper would unit all owls and protect the world from the powers of the dark. Maxwell waits for the owl keeper, and soon does. Maxwell will have to find the courage inside him to enter the forest to find the owl keeper and the silver owls. Soon after Maxwell becomes the new owl keeper.
In my opinion the book was exiting and adventurous at the same time. The fact that some one can be allergic to the sun rays kind of scared me. During the beginning of the book I was starting to think that is was boring and stupid. When 72 it got interesting because Maxwell found the owl keeper and then on it was exiting and adventurous. The exiting part was when the government was not a good guy and they wanted to get rid of all silver owls. The adventurous part was when Maxwell went into the forest to find the owl keeper. But the ending was kind of predictable that Maxwell was going to become the new owl keeper.

After the Great Destruction, much of the world is uninhabitable. The shady and oppressive government, The High Echelon, is building massive domes for people to live in while spreading fear about the outside world. Max is a boy allergic to sun particles, who spends his nights with a silver owl he found in a tree. His grandmother told him that in a time of absolute dark an Owl Keeper would emerge to save the world. After he meets a girl named Rose who opens his eyes to what is happening around them, they realize it is up to them to find the Owl Keeper before it is too late and the world is lost.

I'm incredibly torn on this one. I really want to like it, and from a thematic point I did enjoy it a lot, but there were a lot of technical flaws that irked me while reading the book, most of which could simply be because the book is intended for a younger audience. Max is moral to a fault, and I found his interactions with the 'bad guys' throughout the latter half of the book to be strange and awkward at best. What really got to me was the lack of resolution at the end of the book. The story is left wide open, which I didn't expect at all. Nowhere does the book mention being a part of a series, but so many things are left unanswered! It's never a good thing to feel disappointed at the end of the book, but that's exactly how I felt as I was reading through the last couple of chapters and realizing there was no way the author could possibly wrap everything up in time.

So that's what I'm so torn. It's not bad, not really, but it's also not as satisfying as it should be. I enjoyed the act of reading it, but now that I'm finished I'm looking back on it I feel a little letdown. ( )

Maxwell Unger is about to turn twelve and discover his destiny. After the mysterious death of his grandmother, Max is raised to believe that he has an illness which makes him allergic to the sun and must therefore be cut off from contact with society. His only friends are a silver owl, a boy who brings him his homework, and Rose - a girl who appears one night by the owl tree and is somehow linked to Max's future. This book has it all - great characters, villians, mystery, adventure and suspense. Looking forward to a sequel if one is in the making. ( )