Troubletwisters (review)

Twins Jaide and Jack Shields are none too happy when a sudden emergency forces their parents to ship the siblings off to their estranged grandmother. To be fair, the twins are not distressed simply due to having to stay with a creepy relative: the aforementioned emergency was actually the total destruction of their house after Jack and Jaide were pulled into a swirling vortex of wind and what appeared to be eyes. Their parents’ refusal to discuss the event is more than a little unsettling, and despite her vague references to their troubletwisting powers, their grandmother remains tight-lipped as well. Meanwhile, Jaide and Jack find themselves at the center of increasingly bizarre circumstances including being attacked by swarms of bugs, rats, and rabid dogs. It turns out the twins are from a long line of Wardens—guardians of the world against the Evil—and while Warden lore recommends that young guardians come into their powers without assistance, the Evil isn’t waiting for Jack and Jaide’s natural matriculation and has instead unleashed its chaos, threatening both the twins and their family. Despite its generic name, the Evil really is quite frightening, with its legions of skittering cockroaches, dead and mutilated rats, and other assorted cringe-inducing terrors. Unfortunately, the surrounding story doesn’t achieve the success of its villain, offering a rather uninventive take on the standard kids-save-the-world tale that lacks both foundation and depth. Jack and Jaide are utterly unremarkable, and the lack of detail regarding the backstory of their powers ensures that they remain so. Still, the action is intense, the villain evil (literally), and the ending happy, so that readers familiar with series adventure may find enough here to keep turning the pages.