Tunnels

Tunnels is, like a slew of recent young adult books, allegedly "the next Harry Potter." The concept is solid: a young albino boy named Will, his pudgy friend Chester, and Will's museum-curator father discover a series of massive, deep tunnels below London and are soon being stalked by strange-looking fellows that nobody else seems to notice. When Will's father disappears, Will and Chester decide to venture into the depths to find him and uncover an underground world they never knew existed. I wanted to like this novel, but I simply found it kind of boring: interminable scenes of walking, only moderately interesting characters, and not enough action. (I should acknowledge I read it in French, so if the book contained amazing style and wit, it probably went right over my head--though on the other hand, Harry Potter held up quite well in French, so who knows).