The Lost Code (Atlanteans, #1)

by Kevin Emerson

As seen at: Miss Book Reviews

The Lost Code is an intriguing dystopian set in a dying world where a boy just trying to survive summer camp finds that there’s a whole lot more going on in the world than anyone can know. He’s apart of a species so much bigger than he could have ever realised.

The story:
I really liked how this dystopian mixed in mythology in a future setting. It made this book interestingly different.

Owen is sent to Eden West, a summer camp in one of the domes that are meant to replicate the ‘old’ earth when people could live above the ground without getting radiation poisoning from the sun. The world is slowing falling apart, dying, the radiation levels from the sun are so high that humans can barely survive being above the ground or outside the dome’s. If they are they need to wear NoRad lotion and keep most of their body covered from the sun.

Owen is a quiet, invisible boy that doesn’t feel like he belongs with his cabin. At the beginning it’s quite obvious that he has low self esteem. But as he changes into something that no one can really explain he befriends other kids that are just like him, he suddenly feels like he belongs somewhere. I love how through out this book Owen starts to find himself and becomes way more sure of himself. You can quite clearly see his growth throughout the book and character growth mixed in with the plot is something I love reading.

The twists:
Whenever I thought I knew how this story would go I would find I was wrong. That was interesting and kept me reading. I was never quite completely sure what this book was actually about until I got near the end. This did make me feel like the beginning did take a while to start though because I wasn’t sure where this story was going. It wasn’t very clear. But by half way through I was still very intrigued and I really wanted to find out.

The point of view:
Owen is the main character of this book. I had never read a book with a male character as the MC before this book, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to relate to him. Boy was I pleasantly surprised that just because he was a male it didn’t mean I couldn’t relate to him at all.

The way that Emerson has written Owen had me really liking him. I loved how awkward he was, that he wasn’t this strong hero to begin with. He was just an awkward teen trying to make it through camp without getting bullied by the ‘head’ of their cabin Leech, trying to make friends or even not make friends if that kept him out of trouble.

I loved how awkward he was around Lilly. It was cute.

The Characters:
I really liked the way that Emerson wrote these characters. The way some of these boys acted kept me thinking ‘Boys will be boys’, simply because the things they did were the things that I could see boys that age really doing. I felt like the way a lot of the characters were written had me nodding my head and feeling like that would be exactly how they would act at this age.

Sometimes I did sit there thinking there were some very cliché moments or perhaps a character really lived up to the stereotypical ‘bully’, or ‘teenage girl’ but at the same time it rang true.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Owen was cute, I loved watching him grow into a more confident young man, the take on the mythology of the Atlanteans was fun and awesome. I will definitely be picking up the next book!

The Lost Code is an intriguing and fun dystopian set in a dying world that could be saved by a race of people that no one knows exist, yet it’s up to one awkward teenage boy to try and make it right.