Center for Teaching & Learning

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Finn is not your average boy, growing up in a not- so- average place, surrounded by an unusual group of people. Finn is captive in the living prison called Incarceron that can kill and breed people at will. No one except the inmate’s legend, Sapphique, has escaped the dreaded world. No one has come in or out since the prison was built, although Finn believes he came from the outside. In fact, no one believes there is anywhere else. He embarks on a dangerous quest with his oath-brother Kerio to escape Incarceron using a mysterious crystal key and visions of Sapphique, before Incarceron finds them.
Claudia is the daughter of the warden of Incarceron. She lives in a kingdom where she is forced to marry the second son of the royal family and become the queen of the kingdom. She is trying to find Incarceron’s location with the help of her tutor, Jared. Searching through her father’s belongings, she finds a crystal key she believes will unlock the door to Incarceron. A mysterious artifact brings Claudia and Finn together to uncover a secret plot that has to do with the missing prince of the kingdom and the creation of Incarceron.
Catherine Fisher’s imagination has brought to life this blend of science fiction, action adventure, high technology, kings and queens, and lots of deception, conspiracies, and heart. Readers follow Finn and Claudia through their quest to uncover the truth. Fisher switches between third- person perspectives of Finn and Claudia. When I got to an exciting part, the novel would change perspectives so I was always wanting to read on to find out what happened to the characters. Both characters have to overcome many extra problems they run into, in order to accomplish their main goal.
Fisher leads this book into its follow up, Sapphique. She has written another amazing novel called Circle of Stones. I rate this book a ten because I never stopped being interested in the plot. I also liked how Fisher made Incarceron alive. She used personification to give a prison human qualities, and throughout the book  characters talk about a certain emotion Incarceron is feeling at the time— for example, a rumble or a creak would be how Incarceron shows its emotions. I recommend this book to any one who likes action-adventure, science fiction, corruption, fantasy, and rebellion.
Fisher leads you on two adventures that collide into a story that will change everything for both characters. Meanwhile the reader asks so many questions: Who should they trust? What can they do? Who’s bad and who’s good? What is Incarceron?
Dial books, 442 pages
Marcus