A review by mackle13
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein
3.0
I picked this up on something of a whim one day at the library. I was browsing around, not really sure what I was looking for, when the cover caught my eye. Being that crossroads are elements of lots of supernatural stories, and creepy trees are always good, and the blurb sounded interesting, I decided to give it a go.
At first I was a little tured off by the simple, straight-forward writing. I know it's an MG book and all, but even books written for the 9-12 set can have some embellishment, ya know?
But as I settled into the story it bothered me less. It even worked in some regards to help with the suspense in that it didn't try to sell you on the suspense, it just set things out as they were. In other senses, though, the characters never felt entirely real and I never felt fully engaged. Interested, yes, but not pulled into the story.
Anyway - to the characters. I liked Judy a lot. The not-wicked step-mother to offset a truly terrible mother, who helped Zack in a lot of ways. I also liked that, when confronted with an indisputable ghost sighting she was a believer and started looking into more. While I understand a healthy dose of skepticism, I get tired of people in books and shows confronted with obvious supernatural things only to patently refuse to believe them. It can be very annoying.
I liked the pairing of Zack and Davy, though I felt the author tried a little too hard with Davy (and Clint, for that matter) to emulate the slang of their time period.
It had moments of suspense and tension, of pathos and charm, and a bit of adventure. Overall it was a pretty decent story, probably just the right amount of scary for some kids - though perhaps not enough for some others - almost more of an adventure story than a true horror one. And perhaps a mystery story, as Judy had to piece together the story of Clint and Gerda and get to the truth of what happened.
Speaking of Clint and Gerda, my biggest complaint, perhaps, is that they both started off kind of intimidating, in their own ways, but both became more cartoonish and ridiculous as the story progressed. I would've liked a bit more depth to all of the characters, and a lot less slapsticky over-the-topness from these two in particular.
Might not be something that would bother younger readers, though, and I think they'll enjoy the overall spookiness, but not terror, of the story.
At first I was a little tured off by the simple, straight-forward writing. I know it's an MG book and all, but even books written for the 9-12 set can have some embellishment, ya know?
But as I settled into the story it bothered me less. It even worked in some regards to help with the suspense in that it didn't try to sell you on the suspense, it just set things out as they were. In other senses, though, the characters never felt entirely real and I never felt fully engaged. Interested, yes, but not pulled into the story.
Anyway - to the characters. I liked Judy a lot. The not-wicked step-mother to offset a truly terrible mother, who helped Zack in a lot of ways. I also liked that, when confronted with an indisputable ghost sighting she was a believer and started looking into more. While I understand a healthy dose of skepticism, I get tired of people in books and shows confronted with obvious supernatural things only to patently refuse to believe them. It can be very annoying.
I liked the pairing of Zack and Davy, though I felt the author tried a little too hard with Davy (and Clint, for that matter) to emulate the slang of their time period.
It had moments of suspense and tension, of pathos and charm, and a bit of adventure. Overall it was a pretty decent story, probably just the right amount of scary for some kids - though perhaps not enough for some others - almost more of an adventure story than a true horror one. And perhaps a mystery story, as Judy had to piece together the story of Clint and Gerda and get to the truth of what happened.
Speaking of Clint and Gerda, my biggest complaint, perhaps, is that they both started off kind of intimidating, in their own ways, but both became more cartoonish and ridiculous as the story progressed. I would've liked a bit more depth to all of the characters, and a lot less slapsticky over-the-topness from these two in particular.
Might not be something that would bother younger readers, though, and I think they'll enjoy the overall spookiness, but not terror, of the story.