Tunnels

In Tunnels, Will, an albino 12 year old boy, gets into a lot of trouble. First, his father disappears. One day, Will and his best friend Chester are walking to the store when they notice a big guy in a black coat following them. When they got faster, he got faster. When they got to the store, they shut and latched the door. After a while, the guy went away. When Will got home, the police were investigating his dad’s disappearance. The next day, his mom said that he and his sister Rebecca have to live with their aunt. Will had found a hatch behind a bookshelf in the basement of their house. Will doesn’t want to live with her because she is really a slob, so he decides to go down the hatch with his friend Chester and see where it leads. When he goes down, he finds a large underground city. He doesn’t know that people live there, so he checks out a house. He doesn’t believe his  eyes when he finds a candle burning and 2 bowls of soup, still steaming. When he walks out, a police tackles both him and Chester and brings them to the police station, where he throws them in jail. He notices that the police man is wearing a big black coat like the man that chased them topsoil. A few days after, someone lets Will get out to meet his real dad and his albino brother, Cal. It turns out that Will had been born there, and his mom had gotten out and taken him topsoil where she let someone else adopt him. After that, while Chester stays in jail, Will is taken to his old house to live there.

Every Sunday, Will, Cal, and their father go to church. Will had never been to church before, so it was sort of a new experience for him. After that, they have to go to work with their dad. They work on unclogging waterways. On their way back, their dad goes home without them when they find their uncle Tam. He takes them to a bar where Tam gets into a bar fight. He ends up winning and buys each of them a drink to celebrate. They sit down with Amos, Tam’s friend. Will really wants to go back to his house from top soil. When Tam finds out about this, he helps Will devise a plan to get both will and Chester back home, although Cal cannot come. Will goes into the police station where Chester is being held and throws some rocks, that light up when you throw them, at the police guy that’s keeping watch. Then he takes Chester into a secret door, where he finds Cal. It turns out that he snuck out to come with them. Will tells him to go back, and by the time he is done saying for him to go back, Rebecca, who turns out to be a styx, has taken Chester by one arm and started shutting the door. Will tries grabbing his arm, but it is already too late to save him. Will has to let go and release Chester to the styx.

Will heads to the topsoil. On his way there, he finds a city called the Eternal City. They have to stay there for a few nights since they don’t have water and there was water there. The city was long abandoned and there were no traces of humans. Soon after, they found a stairway that leads them to a small canal. They follow the canal to the end of it, where they find that it is night topsoil. Cal and Will head off for Will’s old house.

When they get there, they find no one there. Cal and Will take showers, get dressed with fresh clothes, and eat a few frozen meals before deciding to go to Will’s aunt’s house. When they get there, they fill her in on what is happening. They stay a few nights and then head back to save Chester. On their way back, when they pass through the Eternal city, they find Tam hiding from some styx. He helps them get away by sacrificing himself to the styx. Amos leads them to a hatch in a well, where they jump through and land on a train, where they find Chester.

I think this book was very confusing. Why would Rebecca be faking being his sister? And why would Tam help them escape and then sacrifice himself to save them from the styx?

Tam hardly even knew Will. My favorite part was when Will was showing Cal topsoil. Another part that I liked was at the end, when they found Chester on the train. This is probably one of my favorite books ever.

By Timothy, 6th Grade Reader