Book Review: Big Game by Stuart Gibbs

Big Game by Stuart Gibbs

Image Courtesy of Amazon

Amazon Synopsis: Teddy Fitzroy returns as FunJungle’s resident zoo sleuth when a rhinoceros is at risk in Big Game, a follow-up to Belly Up and Poached—which Kirkus Reviews called a “thrill-ride of a mystery.” When someone takes aim at Rhonda Rhino, FunJungle’s pregnant (and endangered) Asian greater one-horned rhinoceros, the zoo steps up security measures in order to protect this rare animal and her baby. But the extra security isn’t enough—someone is still getting too close for comfort. Teddy and company start to suspect that whoever is after Rhonda is really after her horn, which is worth a lot of money on the black market. For the first time ever, the head of the zoo enlists Teddy for help—for once, he doesn’t have to sneak around in order to investigate—and the results are even more wacky, and even more dangerous, than ever before.

My Review: I think the main problem with Big Game is that it too closely resembles Spy School. Teddy is pretty much the exact Ben, and Summer is Erica. I wasn't too crazy about the rest of the characters either. Marge was just really irritating and a bit immature, to be honest. No adult keeps accusing a child of being under arrest without proof and bawls like a baby. Teddy and Summer always spoke to the adults like equals, and vice verse, which was not always a good thing because it led to disrespect between the two age groups. There was also quite a bit of slang used between the adults and children, which was unrealistic, and seemed as if it was just to make the reader laugh. All the slang seems the same, and the plot style of a mystery also seems like Spy School. This disappointed me, because different series should not sound the same, which was completely the opposite in this case. The plot itself was okay, it just was blocked out because of the character resemblance. However, the ending was awesome. The real criminal is surprising and unexpected, so it definitely influenced my rating of the novel positively. I really enjoyed the setting of a zoo like FunJungle, as all of it seemed just like a real zoo and it was definitely a fun scene of the crime to explore. Overall, I give this novel 3.5 stars. It definitely could use some improvement to make it to four stars, but it was quite nice overall. Hopefully, Panda-monium is better!