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intotheheartwyld's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
carolanngod's review against another edition
4.0
I don't know why but this book gave me Alice in wonderland vibe. Even with the physical descriptif of Gail and ralf I kept seeing Tweedledum and Tweedledee which are almost the opposite. It's been a while since i've read a middle grade book so it's hard to review this book. But it was enjoyable since i love pretty much all stories about water. There were some minor twist but most of the story was predictable (probably cause i'm not in the middle grade age range ;) )
hollowspine's review against another edition
3.0
Well, that was different and fun!
I enjoyed the strong, curious and stubborn main character Sophie, who wants to be a storyteller. When she ends up on a crazy island, forced into a job lobbing bones to nasty beasties, which surround the island, she doesn't give up hope, but instead sets out to solve the island's mystery. When another member of the crazy family residing on the island offers her a deal, she takes it and begins the search for something called the Monster Box, an artifact that should hold the answer to the mysterious sea illness which caused her parents to sell her off as an servant rather than have to live near the sea anymore.
But, not everyone on the island wants the Monster Box found. In fact, the Battleship and her two sons, very evil versions of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, will do everything in their power to keep her from succeeding...maybe even kill her!
Will Sophie's storytelling, cleverness and tenacity be enough to get her off this wretched, falling apart island?
Fun details, I think kids would especially enjoy the description of the mansion with all of it's bizarre rooms, traps and secrets. As well as the fact that it's just plain weird, there are tentacle monsters, a twisty plot that keeps you guessing and a bunch of bizarre characters. Grades 6+, for those who liked The Dark is Rising series or Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, check this one out. It also reminded me a bit of a Teen series I read by Edward Carey, this first one is called Heap House and is about a mansion in the middle of a rubbish heap (which even though it is in teen would be okay for 6th grade up too.)
I enjoyed the strong, curious and stubborn main character Sophie, who wants to be a storyteller. When she ends up on a crazy island, forced into a job lobbing bones to nasty beasties, which surround the island, she doesn't give up hope, but instead sets out to solve the island's mystery. When another member of the crazy family residing on the island offers her a deal, she takes it and begins the search for something called the Monster Box, an artifact that should hold the answer to the mysterious sea illness which caused her parents to sell her off as an servant rather than have to live near the sea anymore.
But, not everyone on the island wants the Monster Box found. In fact, the Battleship and her two sons, very evil versions of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, will do everything in their power to keep her from succeeding...maybe even kill her!
Will Sophie's storytelling, cleverness and tenacity be enough to get her off this wretched, falling apart island?
Fun details, I think kids would especially enjoy the description of the mansion with all of it's bizarre rooms, traps and secrets. As well as the fact that it's just plain weird, there are tentacle monsters, a twisty plot that keeps you guessing and a bunch of bizarre characters. Grades 6+, for those who liked The Dark is Rising series or Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, check this one out. It also reminded me a bit of a Teen series I read by Edward Carey, this first one is called Heap House and is about a mansion in the middle of a rubbish heap (which even though it is in teen would be okay for 6th grade up too.)
tatidengo's review against another edition
2.0
This book turned out to be surprisingly disappointing because it had all the ingredients to be unique and memorable, but the execution was lacking, especially in terms of world building.
I was lured in by the gothy cover and blurb since I'm always looking for stories with a tame, child-friendly horror feel, a la Addams Family. Even though this big spooky mansion turned out to be placed in an exciting setting unlike any other I've ever read about, the author barely used any description to her advantage. This is a pity because she seems to have a very active imagination, yet injecting some atmosphere and mood into this crazy and potentially awesome place would have made the difference between me recommending this book to everybody or nobody.
This lack of description was also a problem during the many action scenes, which were confusing or misleading. More than a couple times I found a character interacting with an object that I had mistakenly understood was destroyed or inaccessible a few pages back.
The last fourth of the book was the most entertaining because of the big reveal that is hinted at throughout. However, this big reveal sits on the shoulders all the world building that was lacking to this point, so it ultimately felt flat and inconsequential to me.
The characters suffer from this lack of description as much as the setting does. I kept expecting more reasons as to why they behave the way they do, because "they're just crazy" is not an explanation, but it is the only one we're given.
This book really could have been great and I'm sorry that it wasn't.
I was lured in by the gothy cover and blurb since I'm always looking for stories with a tame, child-friendly horror feel, a la Addams Family. Even though this big spooky mansion turned out to be placed in an exciting setting unlike any other I've ever read about, the author barely used any description to her advantage. This is a pity because she seems to have a very active imagination, yet injecting some atmosphere and mood into this crazy and potentially awesome place would have made the difference between me recommending this book to everybody or nobody.
This lack of description was also a problem during the many action scenes, which were confusing or misleading. More than a couple times I found a character interacting with an object that I had mistakenly understood was destroyed or inaccessible a few pages back.
The last fourth of the book was the most entertaining because of the big reveal that is hinted at throughout. However, this big reveal sits on the shoulders all the world building that was lacking to this point, so it ultimately felt flat and inconsequential to me.
The characters suffer from this lack of description as much as the setting does. I kept expecting more reasons as to why they behave the way they do, because "they're just crazy" is not an explanation, but it is the only one we're given.
This book really could have been great and I'm sorry that it wasn't.