This series is special to me because it was the first one that really made me enthusiastic about reading in the first place. I read the first one when I was 12 and I was hooked. It didn't take me long to finish the series. Maybe my rating is a bit biased because of this but as long as the book does a good job of hooking its intended audience and gets them into reading, I think that it must be pretty good. 
 This is a great start to a great series and I would recommend it to anyone who likes books that are adventurous and a little on the creepy side.