Customer Reviews

Locked in Time

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Can you imagine never growing older? Being stuck at the age you are right now for all eternity? If you were Lisette, Gabe or Josie in the novel "Locked In Time", by Lois Duncan, you'd know what it feels like to be the same age for over 100 years. Decades pass, new invention develop, those around you die, but you keep living on... When Nore Robbins goes to live with her dad, who recently remarried Lisette, she begins to sense something about her step-mother and her two kids. Through overhearing mysterious comments and piecing clues together, Nore begins to realize that her new step-family, by some strange occurence, never ages and never will because they are locked in time. The best part about this book is that it has it all (except comedy)... drama, murder, romance, mystery, suspense, science fiction and plenty of real life aspects. Having been written in first person main character, the book gives the reader an inside view on the story. You're right there with Nore as she's hearing the odd fragment of inforamtion and it's almost as if you are helping her piece clues together. The major lesson/moral that was clearest to me from "Locked In Time" was that some secrets just aren't meant to be kept behind closed doors forever. They're bound to be let out in the open sometime, especially if you try to hard to conceal them. Although the book isn't adult-themed, the plot and subtle clues about the ending throughout the book would make it difficult for anyone under 11 to understand and enjoy.

The book I read was Locked in time by Lois Duncan. This book was about a girl named Nore and she is visiting her dad, her new step mom, brother, and sister for the whole summer. When she begins her visit there, she loves it and she loves her new family. She begins to have weird dreams about her dead mother telling her to get herself and her father out of there immediately. She ignores them and soon wishes she hadn't. Soon her new family begins to act very strange and she is beginning to feel weird around them. Nore soon discovers why her stepfamily is acting so strange. She soon decides that she does need to get her father out of there.
I really liked this book because it was both an adventure and mystery book in one. What I didn't like was how Nore's father didn't listen to her. That mad me angry that he didn't believe his own daughter.
I would recommend this book to mysteries lovers. Also, to a person who wants a book to make them keep reading. This book reminded me of the book Tuck Everlasting because they were also locked in time.

Nore immediately thinks there is something creepy going on when she returns to a new home from boarding school and meets her recently widowed father's new wife. This woman, Lisette, is beautiful and young and has two perfect teenage children of her own. They are living with Nore's father in a beautiful old mansion in New Orleans, and he seems happy. But Nore still thinks something is wrong.

Lisette is very protective of her children. She sees her son, Gabriel, falling for Nore and immediately tries to keep them apart. She often hushes her daughter, Josie, stopping her from speaking. Nore keeps feeling like she should be noticing something strange, but at first she doesn't catch on. Then she listens carefully to the things her stepfamily is saying. Josie refers to being present at a disaster that took place forty years ago. She and Gabe both talk about time passing them by, and being stuck where they are. Soon Nore begins to suspect that her stepfamily is not aging at all, that they may have found some way to remain youthful forever. Now that she knows, Nore fears that her own life may be in danger. But how will she convince her lovestruck father that something terrifying is going on with his new family?

The characters in this story are really vivid and nicely described. I liked the ending and felt like it fit well with the rest of the story. I found it rather unbelievable, though, that if such a method for staying young existed, more people wouldn't have figured it out and used it.

This novel has you hooked from the first chapter, it is very interesting and has great suspense!
It is about a girl named Nore. After her mother dies, Nore goes to live with her father and his new family at a mysterious place. Nore gets twisted into a scary world of trouble as she learns new things that will help her solve the mystery of her new family and their home.
It has very interesting scenes that will make you stay up late to find out what happens next, it's a wonderful book.

I first started reading Lois Duncan as teen back in the late eighties and early nineties. I read every one I could get my hands on,whether it be at the library or bookstore.

Locked In Time,however,is my favorite. As a teen I read this book at least six or seven times,yes I liked it that much.

A couple of weeks ago,while searching for some books to buy for my teenage sister-in-law,I came across Locked In Time and decided to get it. The package arrived and there it was calling my name. So,I took it out and read it again. The storytelling and the magic it weaves is still fantastic,even now after all of these years.

I kept that copy,bought my sister-in-law another,and put mine right where it belongs,on my bookshelf next to the Mary Higgins Clark and Sue Grafton novels and all of my other "adult" novels. It's there,ready to be enjoyed again. As i said,It's THAT good.

Locked in Time by Lois Duncan is mix of mystery, suspense and fantasy. I would only recommend to a very patient reader. The book starts out a little boring and puzzling, but once you get into it, you're hooked with suspense.

The main character is a girl named Nore, whose mother dies in the very beginning of the book. After her mother's death, Nore's father sends her off to boarding school and while she was there, her father meets Lissenett and they decide to get married. In all the excitement, they "forgot" to tell Nore (which is what Lissenett wanted). After about three weeks, her father remembers Nore and sends for her to come and live with him and Lissenett. Nore doesn't know what's going to happen. She gets a strange feeling whenever she sees her new family. They're nice, but when she sees them DEATH flashes through her mind.

The story is told in first person by Nore, which makes you feel like you are really there. As the book reaches the end, you feel Nore's tension and uneasiness until the final conclusion, which is ... (you'll have to read it to find out!).

Let me tell you the story of how I got this book. My friend and I had to go to the library to get a book to read in English class. I just grabbed a book off the shelf, not knowing it would be this great of a book. I started reading it and found myself not being able to put it down. Seventeen year old Nore goes to spend the summer with her dad and his new family, who all perfectly beautiful. But when the family starts trying to kill her, she must find out why. the family's horrifying secret leaves Nore and her father in danger. Now she must find a way to get them away from this family, and convince her dad of the truth. This is a must read.by the way I am not a kid I just forgot my password ( I am in college ). but I reccomend this to all ages.

I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, and let me warn you: there is a little fantasy in this book and if you don't like fantasy, I don't think you should read this. It's about a girl named Eleanor (Nore) who goes to live with her stepmother in Louisiana. She knows there is something strange about them. First of all, her stepsister Josie says that she remembers experiencing something that happened way before her time. Also, her stepmother Lisette acts odd sometimes, being unkind and too cautious. She gives her children an anisette which seems make them drowsy. Anyway, Nore knows something is wrong and she goes to investigate it. She goes on a drive with her stepbrother, Gabe, and finds out that he can be dangerous when he's driving and he almost ran them into a huge oak tree. Nore finds an old building on their estate with some papers, photographs, and books in it and it is then when she finds out her stepfamily's strange secret and she knows that she must get out of there at once! Sound interesting? I thought it was and gave it 5 out of 5 stars, even for the fantasy part.

Ms. Duncan has written a marvelous tale that would be utterly terrifying were it not written in first person (you always know that the narrator will survive taking away some of the suspense). Nore (short for Eleanor) has just returned from boarding school for summer vacation. While she was away her father re-married (why wouldn't a father invite his only daughter to his wedding?)and Nore is going to spend the summer with her father and his new family in an old Louisiana estate. Her new stepmother, Lisette Berge appears very beautiful but very stern, demanding of privacy and wanting to live in the estate isolated with no phone service. She has a teenage son Gabe about Nore's age and a daughter Josie of about 13.

Immediately their behavior is very strange. Such as Lisette's reaction to an old woman that knew a Lisette Berge 20 years earlier and that looked exactly the same. Lisette claims it was her mother and runs off away from the woman.

Then Josie and Gabe start talking about things that happened to them many years earlier, which would have been impossible considering they are only teenagers. Additionally, Josie starts talking about never physically changing and about not getting too close to anyone because they die and leave you and that this has happened to her many times. Then she talks about a brother who died many years ago but Nore finds a family photo with the brother in it and Lisette, Gabe, and Nore look exactly the same. Additionally, there is an old man in the photo who looks exactly like a portrait that was painted about 60 years earlier that is hanging in the house!

Also, Nore keeps over hearing Lisette talking about a pact she has made and Josie and Gabe are upset that they weren't asked about it first. The author keeps pointing out that many of the Cajuns are into witchcraft and voodoo so the reader can get a clue as to what the pact was about.

Things come to a head when Gabe tries to first cause a car accident and then tries to drown Nore in the river.

It all builds up to a big climax that Ms. Duncan is very good at. Ms. Duncan has done it again by writing a book that is both interesting to teens and adults alike.

I read this book in the sixth grade, and usually I don't finish books for about a week or longer, but I couldn't put Locked In Time down!!! There was never a dull moment in this book, and the suspense was heavy right up to the last page. Locked In Time is about a girl who's dad is getting remarried to a woman named Lisette. She has two kids, Josie and Gabe. Nore starts getting suspicious about the two of them when Josie is talking about a fire at a circus Josie claimed she went to just a few years ago, but Nore knows it isn't true because her mom said that happened when she was a small child. I recommend this book to people who love mysteries!!! You won't be able to put this book down!!!