The Tomb

Bodeen, S.A. The Tomb
September 25th 2018 by Feiwel & Friends
Public library copy

Kiva is being raised in ancient Egypt, and one of her best friends is the prince, Seth. However, since his mother's passing, he has not come to school and has distanced himself. Kiva is training to be a healer, so when an earthquake causes some damage and injury to her community, she tries to help. However, Seth passes away, and she is not able to do anything. She realizes that her mother is going to allow her to be sacrificed and put into Seth's tomb in order to accompany him to the afterlife. She thinks she has two months to plan her escape, but she wakes up on what seems like the next day only to find that it is the day of the funeral. Things get weirder after that, and Kiva finds that her whole life has been a lie. She and Seth are really in stasis on a space ship, her mother is a hologram, and she's really from the US of the future and not from Egypt at all. Not only that, but the ship the two are on is in trouble, and when they go to find a part for the ship on one of the other units sent forth to evacuate the Earth, they find nothing but trouble. Will they be able to save their ship, or even themselves?
Strengths: This is a great length, has a nice light romance, and definitely is a good example of kids saving the world. I'd like to see more science fiction/space adventure, and Bodeen always does such a good job at putting scientific details into her work.
Weaknesses: I kept thinking of Haddix's Running out of Time, which starts with a similar premise. The Egyptian details are not quite right, which is addressed by Seth later in the book, but which made me uneasy and made it hard to get invested in the story, somehow.
What I really think: This cover would not be appealing to my readers (I have several similar ones that just don't circulate), and it's hard to get into the book at the beginning, so I think I will pass, even though Bodeen's other works do very well in my library.