Hollow Earth

Twins Matt and Emily Calder have imaginations so powerful that they can make art come to life.  Their powers are sought by villains intent on accessing the terrors of Hollow Earth - a place where all the devils, demons and monsters ever imagined lie trapped for eternity.  If Hollow Earth is breached, the world will be plunged into chaos.  If Hollow Earth is breached... ...the twins are as good as dead.

 

I picked this up on a whim.  I'd seen an interview with John and Carole on This Morning promoting Hollow Earth and it sounded interesting enough so I figured if they had it in the library I might as well order it and check it out.

 

At first Hollow Earth reads like a stereotypically badly written novel for pre-teens, but once it gets past the introductions and leaves London behind, the story turns into an interesting and quirky quick read.  The Barrowman's seem to have found a good balance between explaining and showing, as I never felt that the story was being dragged by exposition.  The characters may not be original, but their heritage is, and as the story develops they progress from angst ridden pre-teens into curious and somewhat responsible protagonists that I wouldn't mind following for a couple more books.