A Review of Kenneth Oppel's THE BOUNDLESS
Will Everette has always wanted an adventure of his own. He just never expected that it would take place aboard the maiden voyage of The Boundless—the world’s most enormous and glamorous locomotive. The Boundless is over eleven kilometers long and carries whole cities of shops, circuses, restaurants and gardens within its cars. As son of the train’s manager, Will is first class and privy to the secrets of The Boundless—such as the priceless treasure hidden inside the funeral car of train’s creator, Cornelius Van Horne. When Will comes into possession of the funeral car’s key, his adventure suddenly becomes much more dangerous than he ever would have expected. As the locomotive trundles across 1800s Canada, Will finds himself separated from his father and pursued by a brakeman intent on retrieving the key and robbing Van Horne’s car. It is only by hiding in the circus that Will might manage to get to the front of the train to save his father and stop the brakemen in time. I really enjoyed this one. The Boundless was another novel I’d seen a couple places and then found at the Goodwill bookstore. Kenneth Oppel creates an original story from breathtaking settings, circus shenanigans and the perfect amount of magic.
Age Category
This was the difficult part. The first chapter of the book is actually more of a prologue, because the rest of the book actually occurs three years later. The problem is, we don’t know Will’s age; it’s just never mentioned. I assume the first chapter takes place when he’s about twelve or thirteen, and he’s looking at a university, so I’m guessing he’s at least sixteen. So the book is YA, even though it’s written a bit more like a Middle Grade novel.
I’m going to categorize this for readers 13+, for a couple reasons.
Language
There’s some cursing (“hell”, “damn”, “bastard”, ect.). The villain also says “fecking” and “feck”.
Mature Content
The other thing that clued me in to Will’s age was that he’s noticing girls. His friend Maren is the circus tightrope walker, so she wears leotards. He notices her figure and legs. While he’s at the circus, he also notices the long-legged ballerinas.
When the circus is performing at a tavern, there are “painted women” present. Will sees some of the bare-shouldered women leading men into adjacent rooms, and someone mentions their questionable morals. Maren’s appearance is often greeted with wolf-whistles and catcalls.
Violence
There are a few cases of people being stabbed and shot. There are several sasquatch attacks, and one such creature rips off a human’s head and pikes it on a tree branch. (Granted, the human in question had killed the sasquatch’s mother. Still—ew.)
Creepiness
In laying the tracks for The Boundless, Van Horne unwittingly stirred up some extraordinary creatures, including the sasquatches and a creature known as the muskeg hag. I was actually reading the part with the hag before I went to bed, and when I saw the chapter taking a creepy turn, I stopped right there and picked it back up in the morning. The muskeg hag was probably the creepiest part of the book, comparable to the Old Hag from The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.
Chivalry!
There were so many good things about The Boundless. The one that stood out to me the most was Will’s friendship with Maren. He knows the tightrope walker is strong and can take care of herself, but he still worries. He sees how much unwanted male attention she gets, and he realizes that he would like to protect her.
Maren, for her part, does not shut down Will’s attempts to help and protect her, unless he’s seriously getting in her way. This isn’t third-wave feminism. They both know that she is capable, but she still allows him to protect her. That’s not something you see very often in Young Adult literature.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was creative, thrilling and fun. Fancy midnight chases across the tops of a train? Circuses and sasquatches? I would absolutely recommend The Boundless.