Literary Merit: Poor
Characterization: Okay
Recommended: Not Recommended
Level: Middle School

Peak Marcello, the son of a famed mountain climber, tackles an isolated peak in Myanmar with a few of his friends on an ill-advised trip. Peak's adventure feels less like a novel and more like a string of crazy adventures strung together with no real connective tissue. The wealthy white kids who are suffering on the road to the mystical peak dub the Burmese villages they encounter "Strangeland," and the Burmese people they encounter never lose their sense of primitive otherness. Fortunately, we don't have to put up with two of the main characters for long as they are whisked away mid-novel so that Peak can have a moment with his father and learn the value of selling out for the sake of his friends and family. The jungle our heroes traipse through is the very pinnacle of convenience, with help (whether it's scientists or soldiers) appearing out of the wilderness wherever and whenever they are needed, with little struggle on the heroes' part. Roland Smith also has a strange way of assigning value to scenes, with the revelation that the kids' guide is a murderous psychopath given the same weight as the revelation that Peak's friend has lost his spoon. There's a great adventure story somewhere in here for reluctant readers, but it's lost in the chaos. ( )