Book worth Cheking out: Idlewild by Nick Sagan

I'm a slow reader and when I find books I enjoy I tend to read everything the author puts out. (Lately this then turns into me finding out that the author has died.) Anyways last year while in France I read my first Neil Gaiman novel Neverwhere. But that is a story for another day.

While on a recent trip to the library in a fruitless search for either Game of Thrones or Hunger Games. I lingered in the scifi section, because I am a huge scifi fan, and a cover caught my eye. 

There is this moon thing with a butterfly... Like what could this be about? I flip it over to look at the blurb only to find that I am an idiot and hardcover books have the blurb on the inside flap. I also discover a quote by Neil Gaiman. Okay so an author I like has read this so it is worth opening and actually reading the blurb instead of re-shelving it.

"Set in the day after tomorrow, Idlewild opens as a young man awakes with amnesia: He cannot remember who he is and doesn't recognize anything around him-all he knows for sure is that someone is trying to kill him. Not certain whom he can trust, he becomes reacquainted with eight companions, all of whom are being trained at a strange school run by an enigmatic figure named Maestro. Working to uncover the identity of the person who has attempted to murder him, the young man quickly starts to unravel a series of truths, making it clear that much more than just his life is at stake."

Okay I must say this is not usually my cup of tea. Actually after reading the blurb I did put it back on the shelf, I just couldn't fathom a book about some guy with amnesia walking around clueless trying to find the guy who almost killed him. Also what part of this is Scifi? All I could even think of was Ender's Game with the school. But something pulled me back, maybe it was Neil Gaiman, maybe it was the fact that Nick Sagan is a Hollywood screenwriter, or it could have been that damn butterfly on the cover how would that play in a murder mystery I am not sure. 

I'm glad I picked up that book! And I think you should too. Sure the first 100 pages are confusing. He (Halloween) has amnesia so you are uncovering the truth pretty much as the character does. Which also left me in a fog for much of the story, but as the rules unfold and the mystery begins to clear up, the book is kinda brilliant. Think post apocalyptic Matrix. And thanks to our friends at Goodreads I have just found out there is 2 more books! While I was satisfied with the ending I wonder where the story could go. So do yourself a favor and look for Idlewild. Because if you are like me and trying everything to find Game of Thrones or Hunger Games, you are in for a long and fruitless search my friend. And that wisdom way told to me by the Clerk of my favorite book shop.