REVIEW for Perpetual Check

A big thank you goes out to Random House Children's Books for sending this book along.

TITLE: Perpetual Check
AUTHOR: Rich Wallace

GENRE: YA

RATING: 4 Stars

I am not a big fan of chess, however, I am a bit in awe of anyone who can play - especially if they elevate the playing to championship level. This is the basis of the new YA book Perpetual Check, written by Rich Wallace.

I immediately liked the premise of this book. Two young boys, who happen to be brothers, share one big thing in common - they are both natural chess players. As with most brothers, there is a "popular" one and a least popular one and when they will find themselves competing against each other - we will get to discover just how far both brothers are willing to go to win. I have to say that I thought the characters of Zeke and Randy were very interesting and, in many ways, completely opposite of one another - yet, I still felt as though they had many things in common, despite the fact that neither would agree with this comment.

As I mentioned, the characters were interesting, if not likeable all the time. However, I think this worked for the storyline - as it helped the reader discover the personality and the unknown sides of each brother - helping us make an obvious distinction between them, but also helping us to find the commonality between them. I also liked the plotline of the competition of chess. Of course, this book lacked the high intensity of sports competitions and did not have car chases, romances or high octane fights, but the author managed to set a scene of intense rivalry, stress and competition that worked very well. I found myself compulsively turning pages wanting to read more - wanting to find out how and who would win here.