Tag: middle grade

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about the stitchers by Lorien Lawrence. i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, this book was honestly kind of good, and it really shocked me on how well it worked, but of course, it wasn’t perfect. but, thank you so much Netgalley and Abrams Kids for an arc of this book! this is an honest review, and my thoughts aren’t going to be changed by the publisher and/or the author.

trigger warnings- death of a parent, grief

first thing first, i feel like if you were or are a fan of goosebumps and/or nancy drew, this is the book for you. like, it definitely is a more modern version of this, so if you like those, i feel like if you want to go back to the good old days, you’d like it. i definitely feel like this book would honestly work so well with a goosebumps book, and gave me so many goosebumps vibes, so i really enjoyed it.

this also is a nice slow burn book. like, i feel like they never really to many book that kind of move slow, and i really like to jump head first into the mystery of books, but this was really cool that it was slow. like, we really got to understand the characters and their motivation and what their lifestyle is, and how Quinn got shaped to be the person she was. so, i thought it was so cool, and i really liked to see it all pan out and to get a real feel for the world and the characters.

but, i do wish that we got to see more about the Oldies. like, i feel like they did talk about them, and they really talked about them, and their lifestyle, but i wish we got to see more about them and like how they function. but, i do think that we did get to see more of it in the end, which i guess was super cool. but, i do wish we got to see more of it up front, and not more before the end of the book.

i honestly really liked matt and quinn’s relationship. like, i really liked the whole ‘fake dating,’ if you really want to call it that, cause their like 13. but, i really liked how they grew to be these really good friends and how matt didn’t think quinn was crazy when she thought the oldies were vampire’s, aliens or whatever else she thought they were. and i liked their dynamitic and how they both balanced each other out with their different adventures.

and i’m honestly really happy that we are gonna see more of them in the next book of the story. since i feel like their ending was honestly pretty open and i did really enjoy it and i feel like if it ended up closely, it wouldn’t work that well. but, it was a pretty wide ending, so i greatly enjoyed the ending of this book and how it all worked.

but, i also feel like this book had to much ‘fluff.’ i’m not sure if that makes sense, cause it’s not romance at all, but more like family drama. like, it mostly was just seeing quinn’s grandmother and how different things panned out in the world of this book, and how some of the family worked out. but, it was honestly so cool, even if it was kind of boring. since, i did kind of like how quinn picked apart her grandmothers mind and how other people thought quinn was honestly insane.

and i know as we get closer to those halloween in july read a thons, i feel like this book would honestly be so good for an atmospheric read. like, i feel like we really got sucked into this story and how it all worked out, and how it was going to work. and i honestly recommend this book, and to see the different ways things work.

this might just be me, but i do really like the talk about grief, especially since it was a younger character, i really liked how they talked about it all. and especially since this character was about 13, i thought it was cool to see how she was handling the death of her father and how everyone in your life will grieve differently. and i feel like it is so powerful to see a kid grieve someone, since you never know what a kid will go threw, so it might be kind of comforting, in a weird way.

but, i also think it was cool to see the mother-daughter relationship. like, it was cool to see how their relationship worked, especially since the death of her father impacted them both so differently, and how the death made everyone act differently and how they both are doing and what their life is like post death. so, that was honestly really cool and i lowkey want more books with a good mother-daughters relationship.

for kids, i do feel like this book was honestly a pretty good book. like, i feel like it would be super engaging cause i feel like it was so cool and that they will probably really like this story and the characters and the plot. and it is enough of the horror book, if someone you know that is younger wants to read horror, they’ll like this and feel like they are reading something scary, even if it isn’t that bad.

anyway, that is all for today! i honestly really liked this book, and hopefully i’ll get approved for an arc of this book, fingers crossed. since i feel like it is gonna be a good book, since this was such a strong book. and it really honestly really set up the next book in the series, so that was honestly so cool. but, thank you so much netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this book!

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about part of your nightmare by Vera Strange. i gave this book 3/5 stars. first off, thank you so much disney books and netgalley for an arc of this book! the thoughts and opinions in this book are my own, and aren’t changed by the publisher and/or author.

trigger warning- none

my biggest issue with this book was how when anything happened, no matter how small it was, the chacters would say #itsucks or #lovecoffee. and it just got to be annoying cause like it didn’t do anything to the plot, besides annoy the actual hell out of me. and it was so unneeded, and i get that they are kids, like middle schoolers, so yeah that is understandable, but Strange lowkey took it to the extreme and made me want to poke out my eyes.

i also wish that the characters were fleshed out more. like, yeah i know it’s a middle grade and kids don’t have the best attention span, but i feel like the characters were all very flat and dull. and also they would bring things up and like forget about them, which was just annoying. but, i feel like Strange could have at least rounded these characters more and not made them so flat and boring tween girls that drink to much starbucks and say hashtag to much.

but, i’m also kind of surprised about how much i liked the ending of it. like, i really didn’t expect to like it as much, since i thought it was going to be something like, oh shit well that’s over lol. but, it was actually really good and like super interesting and not terrible and like so boring. so honestly this was so surprising and honestly pretty good. and it’s also not the cookie cutter ending that i thought it would be, and which some middle grade books tend to be.

but, i do feel like the ending was very rushed though. like, i mean they could have had this ending that tied everything together, but instead it doesn’t really tie that much together, since it was like oh shit, one things, then another thing, and finally the ending, in a matter of pages. so, i wish it was wrapped up better and wasn’t so quick. since this whole book was honestly so good and interesting, and i just expected it to be tied together better.

honestly, this book was kind of cool, and i hope each book in the series do the same thing too, about how they kept talking about being eco friendly. like, i feel like we never get a character who is super into the environment and to save the planet, so having Shelly being into it was super cool and i really enjoyed that part of the book. and also the different conversations that were brought up about being eco friendly were honestly kind of cool and i really liked reading about.

plus, since this is a middle grade, i do find it really cool that Strange was kind of bringing up real life issues into her books. like, obviously she talked about being eco friendly, but also just bringing up different topics like peer pressure, since that really got us into this mess. and just can now release how dangerous peer pressure actually is, and why you shouldn’t do it to be cool or anything like that.

but, i did find it to be so cool that there was some little mermaid references in this book. like, some of the names were from the movie and i honestly thought it was kind of cool to read that and to pick them out. like, it is so small of a thing, but i just really liked. and also how the town was called Triton Cove, which i really liked, again which is so small, but it was just kind of cool to see if you liked the movie.

i also really liked the friendship between Enrique and Shelley. like, it was just so cool and i really liked reading the parts with them together. like, they were just such a cute friendship cause they were both so into marine life and the aquarium, and to see how they acted around each other was so cute. and i also really like that they never got together or anything, since that would be really weird cause they are like 12.

but, i do find that it was kind of cool that disney is making this whole goosebumps series, honestly. like, yeah they have the kingdom keepers, which is honestly so cool, but it’s not that scary, and i mean a lot of people read goosebumps and it kind of raised them, i mean i definitely did. like, to this day i have a whole self and another smaller shelf filled with rl stine books. so, i feel like this is cool to see goosebumps meets disney villains. and i honestly really loved it.

anyway, that is all for today! this is honestly kind of a shorter review, but i feel like i can’t drag it out cause it’s a shorter book, plus a middle grade. but, this was still such a cool book, and i really liked what happened in this book. so, thank you so much disney and netgalley for an arc of this book!