Locked Inside [Hardcover]

Nancy Werlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2000

Marnie is tremendously wealthy, and tremendously alone. The 16-year-old daughter of a superstar who was killed years ago in a plane crash, Marnie refuses to take part in her oppressive boarding-school community. She would rather burrow away in the dark, comforting world of her favorite Internet adventure game--especially now that she has started chatting online with another player, an intriguing rogue who calls himself the Elf.

But closing herself off from the people around her doesn't mean she's safe, as Marnie soon discovers. Kidnapped, locked inside an empty basement cell, Marnie is forced to confront painful truths about herself and her famous mother, as she desperately tries to escape her jailer. Oh, how little her cyber-adventure game has prepared her for this real-life dungeon! And how she longs for just one more battle of wits with her mischievous Elf!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sixteen-year-old Marnie Skyedottir is totally addicted to the computer game Paliopolis, where in the guise of the Sorceress Llewellyne she competes avidly with the clever but pesky Elf to escape from labyrinths and dungeons and evade the blind Rubble-Eater. Paliopolis feels safe to Marnie--not like real life, where she is flunking out at her exclusive boarding school, her famous mother Skye is dead, and her guardian Max stubbornly refuses to let her have the millions she will inherit at 21.

Skye, a mysterious former gospel singer who came from nowhere to become the beloved founder of a near-religion, has taught her daughter to fear intimacy. When the Elf, who turns out to be a senior at a nearby school, manages to figure out who Marnie really is and where she lives, she recoils. But later, when a crazed chemistry teacher acts on her delusion that she, too, is Skye's daughter and imprisons Marnie in a cellar room, the Elf's concern for her brings him crashing into the situation in a bungled rescue attempt. Now, locked securely away in a windowless basement, they face a very different problem from the virtual dungeons of Paliopolis. There the Sorceress and the Elf had a cloak of invisibility, truth glasses, and a spellbook to help them outwit their enemy, but here they have only a blanket, a half-empty bottle of seltzer, and a sand bucket... and the Elf has a gunshot wound in his leg.

Nancy Werlin, winner of the Edgar Award for The Killer's Cousin, has here given her eager fans another fresh and engrossing thriller with psychological depth underlying its clever plot twists. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

From Publishers Weekly

Less taut than Werlin's The Killer's Cousin, this novel nevertheless offers enough cliffhangers to keep readers hooked. Marnie hasn't been able to reach out to anyone since the death of her wealthy superstar mother, Skye ("an ex-gospel singer who'd started her own well, some said it was practically a religion"). Not knowing even her father's identity, her doings supervised by a guardian, Marnie alienates the other girls at her boarding school. Instead of studying, she immerses herself in an Internet strategy game and her one friend, the Elf, remains at a comfortable distance in cyberspace. But when Leah Slaight, a new teacher, kidnaps her in a misguided attempt to prove that she is also Skye's daughter, Marnie must depend on the skills she has learned in her game to save herself. Even beyond this unlikely premise, there is plenty to strain credibility, such as the Elf showing up single-handed to free Marnie (Leah captures him, too), and Marnie emerging a more together person after being locked in a basement for a week. For all the implausibility, the book is entertaining. Marnie's outsiderishness is of the kind that appeals to readers ("At least you match," she thinks, when she realizes the black eye Leah gave her is the same shade as her dress) and her personality is spirited enough to live up to the creative problem-solving Werlin assigns her. Ages 14-up.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (February 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385327005
• ISBN-13: 978-0385327008
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,629,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nancy Werlin was born and raised in Peabody, Massachusetts, USA and now lives near Boston. She received her bachelor's degree in English from Yale.Since then, she has worked as a technical writer and editor for several computer software and Internet companies, while also writing fiction. She is a National Book Award finalist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, thrilling book you can't put down!, November 21, 2004

By 

Karen (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Locked Inside (Hardcover)

Locked Inside is about a sixteen year old girl name Marnie. Her mother had died 5 years ago and her guardian is a man name Max. Marnie goes to this boarding school, she isn't studying as hard as she should be and ends up not doing well in school. She spends most of her time playing this game online with is guy identified as Elf. After her mother's death, Marnie hasn't really want anyone to get close to her, bascially like disconnecting herself from the world. She soons get kidnap by her teacher name Ms. Slaight where she also meets the guy name Elf in person. I don't want to disappoint anyone by telling the ending so read it to find out. This is an excellent book and I recommend people from ages 12 and up. I really like this book because the author is telling everyone a very important message. I can't wait to read The Killer's Cousin. I have read a lot reviews saying that it is an outstanding book even better than this one. Anyways this is a really REALLY superb book and I hope you read it, you won't be disappointed.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!, February 29, 2000

By 

Teacher Who Loves Books (U.S,) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Locked Inside (Hardcover)

I couldn't put LOCKED INSIDE down! It's a great combination of suspense, romance and a mystery, too. If you liked THE KILLER's COUSIN, you're in for a treat. This one is even better!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strong, engrossing second novel, March 17, 2003

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Locked Inside (Mass Market Paperback)

Locked Inside is a companion of sorts to Nancy Werlin's The Killer's Cousin, which I liked better, at least initially. Locked Inside is the story of Marnie Skyedottir, a wealthy sixteen-year-old orphan at a private school in northern Massachusetts. Her singer/songwriter/author mother died five years ago, leaving her in the guardianship of Max and the care of boarding schools. When Marnie is kidnapped, she has to confront the influence her mother left on her life.

Marnie is hard to warm up to at first, and not because she's unlikable; readers will identify with her stubbornness and the way she hates adults prying into her life. I assumed that Nancy Werlin didn't want readers getting close to Marnie, because Marnie doesn't really let anyone get close to her. It was a good device on Werlin's part, but it makes the book hard to get into.

There are also several lengthy descriptions of Paliopolis, the online role-playing game that Marnie is involved with. Werlin does a pretty good job of relationg these to what's going on with Marnie, but they're a little hard to get into and identify with if you're not a gamer.

The book cover is misleading because it gives the impression that Marnie does all her contemplation while she's kidnapped. I thought the book was going to be set mostly during the time she was "locked inside," but the major revelations about her mother come after she's been set free. It's fine, but it's not what I expected.

Frank Delgado, the sole friend of David Yaffe from The Killer's Cousin, makes an appearance in Locked Inside as the "Elf," one of Marnie's fellow gamers on Paliopolis, who comes to her rescue in real life when she's kidnapped. Honestly, realizing that the Elf was Frank was the highlight of the read for me. I enjoy it when characters make "guest appearances" in authors' other books, at least sometimes. Locked Inside gave some more insight into Frank's character, which simply doesn't come in The Killer's Cousin.

Marnie's change from the beginning of the book to the end is not as well-evoked as David's, in The Killer's Cousin, but it is still a strong read that features a resourceful, if shortsighted, heroine. Nancy Werlin writes Marnie as well as she did David, which is a nice accomplishment, to be able to evoke both boys and girls successfully.