The Den by Keith Gray

The Den by Keith Gray follows Marshall and his friends through the ups and downs of the start of the summer holiday.  When they find a secret underground bunker they are flooded with many different things they could do to entertain themselves during the summer holiday. For Marshall, it is also an opportunity to get away from his challenging home life. When Marshall thought he had lost all his friends and is challenged to a fight over who gets the den, will he lose everything or will everything go back to normal?

I enjoyed reading this short book as it was a gripping storyline about two young teenagers with not much to do over the summer holiday and how they found things to entertain themselves. This book covers a range of topics including friendship and family life with the overwhelming message that things can get better.

The downside of this book is that the storyline could have been much more developed. I understand this book is for readers aged 11+ but the book could be made more exciting. The writer could have included a mystery and thriller element or even a horror element. For instance, the friends come across this bunker and spend the night sleeping over. Although the plot was mainly about the friendship between these two friends it would definitely have been much better if there was more about the den, maybe the boys saw a paranormal occurrence or maybe they found out what the den was and why it was there.

Altogether, I rate this book 3 stars because it is a good book with an enjoyable and exciting plot which makes the reader want to learn what happens next. I recommend this book for young people aged mainly between 10 and 14 years old as this is a nice short book which is easy to read. I look forward to reading any follow-up books which may follow this first book. I must thank both NetGalley and Barrington Stoke publishers for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest book review.