The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Kaylin | Academy of Allied Health, Grade 10

Rating: *****

The Da Vinci Code follows a man named Robert Langdon, a symbologist at Harvard. He travels to Paris for a lecture and to meet the curator of the Louvre, but when he arrives, he learns that the curator was murdered, leaving behind a series of confusing messages. Langdon is brought to the scene of the crime by the police to see if he can decipher any of the codes, only to be informed by a cryptograher named Sophie Neveu that he is actually a suspect, and the police plan to arrest him. Sophie and Langdon discover that the murdered curator was part of a secret society that protects the Holy Grail, and his cryptic messages start them on a quest to find it before it lands in the wrong hands.

This novel is exceptionally well written. A lot of time and research was clearly put into it. It definitely paid off though, because it was really engaging to read. I learned a lot about pagan religions, da Vinci, and Christianity that I didn't know before. It made me want to learn more about them. The writing and descriptions of the characters were really detailed too, which made the story and characters more realistic. Even the minor characters had their own stories and motivations that made you empathize with them. The Da Vinci Code definitely lives up to its fame.