After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit--and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life.
Thoughts:
4.5/5 stars.
I literally had no idea what mountain climbing entails. Having never been to or climbed one before, my expectations for what climbing a mountain meant were fairly mediocre and pretty much made mountain climbing seem like a joke compared to what it really is.
Peak is about this boy. Named Peak. He's named that because his parents are (the mother is a "were") mountain climbing fanatics, loving the complete thrill and rush of getting to the top and seeing a breathtaking view. He gets caught climbing a skyscraper, and then is poofed off to live with his good ol' dad. Who he hasn't seen for about 8-ish-ish years. Peak is excited yet wary to go along with his father because it looks like his dad has an ulterior plan up his parka other than to chill with his son.
Seriously. This book blew my mind. And not in the"Woah, this could compete with J.K. Rowling's writing" kind of way. But in the "Woah. I did not know that was what getting to the mountaintop entailed" kind of way. There are great circumstances and obstacles you have to overcome, and I thought Roland did a great way of describing Peak's journey to the top. Being a mountain-virgin myself, Roland gave a great way of describing everything down to the toilet paper they had to use. While reading this novel, I felt I was Peak, trudging along through harsh snow, or trying to swallow with a sore throat. Yeah. That's how good the descriptions were.
Peak's development as a character was nice to see too. And I especially liked the two Sherpa brothers, Yoshi and Yash. Though they had minor roles in the book and didn't really talk much, I loved how they interacted with each other, playing little side games, etc. And on that note, I appreciated how Roland went along with the minor characters. Opposite of their name, I felt they were all major part of the book, having significant roles throughout with distinct personalities and traits. We saw lots of different people from other countries (since they too wanted to climb the mountain), and many different types of people, from annoying, to downright meanie heads.
I have one word for what I imagined the setting to be: snowy. I just saw snow everywhere in my mid, falling down as flakes, the left behind footprints, etc. For me, the only reason this book did not achieve a perfect 5 was because there were some lulls in the road.
This. Book. Is. Fascinating.
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