Hang on to your seats because you will go on a roller coaster ride with the four gatekeepers.  

I was quite disapponted here (and, obviously, I'm alone in this). It felt like too many other 'teen fiction' books of late--formulaic and simplistic. I rather enjoyed his others, so maybe its an aberation. ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

The first strange event in the life of Scarlett Adams was the day she was rescued from certain death when she innocently stepped into the path of a speeding white van. She would have liked to thank the Chinese man who bravely swooped her out of harm's way, but he disappeared into the crowd.

Scarlett always knew she was adopted. Born in China, she was brought to England by Paul Adams and his wife. Her life was one of excess and privilege, but it was spent mostly with a live-in housekeeper and at her exclusive private school. Both her adoptive parents were busy with important careers, and when they announced they were divorcing, it was sad but not totally unexpected. Scarlett was content to continue attending her private school and living in the house with the housekeeper.

Another odd part of Scarlett's life was the dream she had on a fairly regular basis. Always set in a vast wasteland, it involved a familiar character named Matt. She always felt a strange connection with Matt and the feeling that they would one day meet.

Scarlett's world suddenly changes when she receives a message from her father requiring that she join him in Hong Kong. The message makes her suspicious the moment she reads it, and things become even more bizarre as she boards a plane for the other side of the world. She's met at the airport by people who tell her her father has been called away on important business, but they have been assigned to handle her care until he returns.

Readers of NECROPOLIS will immediately recognize that Scarlett is the fifth member of the Gatekeepers. Matt, Pedro, Scott, and Jamie are the other four talented teens whose duty is to save the world from destruction by The Old Ones. The five are the reincarnations of five who came before them and attempted to save the world in the past.

Anthony Horowitz uses his talent as an adventure writer to create the breathtaking world of monsters and shape-changers bent on the death and destruction of humankind. THE GATEKEEPERS adventures will satisfy even the most hard-to-please readers with bloody battles, last-minute getaways, massive insect swarms, and one double-cross after another.

Readers will now have to anxiously await Book #5 to find out how the adventure is to continue. ( )

The problem with books set on earth, but with an alternate historical time line is that they end up feeling un-fulfilling almost without exception; of course made up worlds often end up incomplete to a large degree or trite. Necropolis falls into the former category.

In short form (and having gathered from this fourth book of the series), the Gatekeepers are a collection of children who overthrew the regime of the Old Ones ten thousand years in the past. They have magical powers and are stronger together; reborn and grown to the age of 15, four of the five are together, hunting for Scar, the last gatekeeper. In the meantime the Old Ones have come back to claim the earth as their own.

The story moves and is written in an easy style, flipping between Scar and the unofficial group leader, Matt. Despite a very limited cast of characters and interactions for them, the kids are not un-likable and the story moves along well enough without having any real depth.

I probably should not have selected this book, because I'm not into much young-adult fiction. The writing is simple, but somewhat interesting. One should never start a series when you haven't read the earlier works in the series. Hopefully, I haven't put anyone off this book, it was my stupidity in selecting the wrong genre. ( )