hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about down world by Rebecca Phelps. i gave this book 4/5 stars. first off, thank you so much netgalley and wattpad books for an arc of this book! and happy almost pub date, it’s march 30th, if you care. and also this of course, is an honest review, and all the opinion are mine.
trigger warning- bullying, child death, death.
personally, i think if you really like back to the future, or even like those movies a little bit, this book would probably be for you. honestly, its a little different since they obviously go back to the past and see the parents, or hell even go to the future and see their future kids, and this is a parallel universe, so its a little different. but, i feel like if you like that, you might like this, to a degree.
one thing that was kind of annoying was how they described everything. like, literally everything, they would go into all this descriptions about everything that was around them and also how things looked. i will give them a plus, but i really liked that we got to see our main characters emotions and what they were actually feeling with everything that was happening.
but, this book also read like a debut. which, is something that i honestly really expected, since at this point, i always do. so, i feel like with this being a debut, and this is most likely Phelps’ first real time writing, so i can’t really hold that against them. but, if it got a bit more editing, it might have been helped, but it could honestly get over it and also just expected.
personally, i really liked the characters. i feel like they were all so different, and have so many different plots and even emotions, which is something i liked. and i honestly really liked to see how they all worked together and how they all had different feeling about the doors and how everything really worked, they all thought different things and had different reactions which i really liked. and overall, i thought it was cool to see that, and honestly i didn’t really expect it.
but, i did find the doors to be kind of confusing. like, they would talk about them, but they never really deeply explained it that well. which, got to be kind of annoying if i’m being honest. like, yeah they would say, here’s the three doors, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. which, yeah i get that, but i wish they kind of explained it more and went more in depth about it. and i don’t know, i kind of expected something more.
and i also feel like there was somethings that were not explained well enough. like, they told about this other door, but they just didn’t explain it well. like, i feel like it was just confusing cause they would kind of bring this other door up, but never really explain how it was created, or at least from what i remember, which could be wrong.
i honestly found that all the different people got to be kind of confusing. like, they would bring up these adults, who went to this school when they were teenagers, which was fine. but, then they would like fight with these teenagers and they are like 50??? like your 50, get over yourself and tell the teenagers what you know. like, it got to be kind of annoying.
but, i do feel like these characters were written like teenagers. like, i feel throughout this book they were written like you would write a teenager. and overall, their mindset and motives were very much something a teenager would think and how they would react. so, that was really cool and i overall really liked it so much. and that was probably got to be one of the best parts. even if they are a bit unlikeable, which i would just push threw.
and i honestly kind of liked Marina. like, at parts she was a bit annoying, which was honestly fine and i got over it. since, i feel like she went threw so much with her brother dying and how she had to get over that. and i feel like she was such an honest character, which was so cool. and that she just said it how it is.
but, i might consider this to be low horror. like, i feel like there are parts that are a bit spooky and kinda weird, but it might be a cross between sci fi and horror, like, if they meet and collided into one book. with that being said, it really isn’t that scary, more just odd and kind of paranormal.
with all this being said, i do feel like there was parts of this book that went into the relationships, romantically and just friendship, way more then it probably should have. i personally feel like they went into these relationships and the crushes, when they probably could have not happened, or at least go into so much detail and focus on the doors.
anyway, that is all for today! this is honestly a shorter post, cause i feel like i don’t have enough feelings for this book, and i just don’t want to say the same things again and again. but, still thank you so much Netgalley and Wattpad books for an arc of this book. and happy almost pub date!
r.bookish 