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thenextgenlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 ⭐️
This one started off really good and suspenseful for me then it just went on too long. The surprise was a bit too sci-fi for me when I was expecting a mystery. The constant alternating points of view also annoyed me a bit and wasn’t that necessary. It made many chapters 2 pages long, making it a total of 61 chapters. Many kids might enjoy having shorter chapters but I found them staccato and didn’t allow me to enjoy each character as long as I’d like. It also ends on a cliffhanger leading into book 2, FYI.
This one started off really good and suspenseful for me then it just went on too long. The surprise was a bit too sci-fi for me when I was expecting a mystery. The constant alternating points of view also annoyed me a bit and wasn’t that necessary. It made many chapters 2 pages long, making it a total of 61 chapters. Many kids might enjoy having shorter chapters but I found them staccato and didn’t allow me to enjoy each character as long as I’d like. It also ends on a cliffhanger leading into book 2, FYI.
bookgirl4ever's review against another edition
3.0
Siblings Chess, Emma, and Finn Greystone come home from school one day to find their mom out of sorts. She is watching a news story about three kids in Arizona who were kidnapped. What's odd is the three kids have the same names and are the same ages as the Greystone children. That night, Chess follows mom to her workroom and overhears her phone conversation with someone named Joe. Mrs Greystone tells Joe they are responsible for those children. The next morning, Mrs Greystone has a sudden business trip with no end date, and she makes arrangements for the kids to stay with an acquaintance. The story continues to get weird until the situation is explained and it ends on a cliffhanger.
For middle grade children who are "science" minded.
For middle grade children who are "science" minded.
kristinbolkema's review against another edition
3.0
It started out promising, but the plot twist didn't work as well as I had hoped. I will see if the next one works better. I liked the character of Emma.
seshat59's review against another edition
3.0
The Strangers is a middle grade contemporary that is best read without any prior knowledge other than the blurb. I won’t spoil anything significant.
The story begins with the kidnapping of three children with the same names and birthdates as our three protagonists, twelve year old Chess, ten year old Emma, and eight year old Finn. The kidnapping makes their mother behave strangely, and the next day she abruptly leaves on a business trip. She has them stay with a virtual stranger and her middle school aged daughter Natalie. Their mother’s strange behavior and more bizarre texts lead the kids to look for clues around their house, where they find evidence that their mom does not plan to return. This leads to a coded letter and clues that lead to an abrupt genre twist — but the evidence was there if you were paying attention, and savvy readers will deduce it ahead of time.
The text does seem heavy handed for middle grade but with the world as it is, I think they can handle it. With the real world as it is, the motto of love and logic winning the day doesn’t seem super optimistic to me but okay. Hope for the win.
The story begins with the kidnapping of three children with the same names and birthdates as our three protagonists, twelve year old Chess, ten year old Emma, and eight year old Finn. The kidnapping makes their mother behave strangely, and the next day she abruptly leaves on a business trip. She has them stay with a virtual stranger and her middle school aged daughter Natalie. Their mother’s strange behavior and more bizarre texts lead the kids to look for clues around their house, where they find evidence that their mom does not plan to return. This leads to a coded letter and clues that lead to an abrupt genre twist — but the evidence was there if you were paying attention, and savvy readers will deduce it ahead of time.
The text does seem heavy handed for middle grade but with the world as it is, I think they can handle it. With the real world as it is, the motto of love and logic winning the day doesn’t seem super optimistic to me but okay. Hope for the win.
thelilbulldozer's review against another edition
3.0
My rating: 3 stars
Granny's rating: 3 stars*
*kind of stretching it
This book is insane
Granny's rating: 3 stars*
*kind of stretching it
This book is insane
mblair8506's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this book. It had all the twists and turns that I have come to love about Margaret Peterson Haddix’s books. I cannot wait to read the second book in this series because this book ends with many unanswered questions.
sasha_in_a_box's review against another edition
2.0
Sorry to say that I wasn't impressed. The book is fine at first, with these 3 siblings discovering a missing set of siblings just like them in another part of the country, an unexpected cellphone, a secret room... Intriguing! But then it's boring for a while as they go back and forth a lot across town with a sullen teen and her mother. And then the entire genre flips over and around and it gets weird, and not in a fun or cute way. Imagine you're reading The Mysterious Benedict society and suddenly it's 1984. It's just so bizarre. And very adult in complexity and randomly racheted violence? I'm not against violence or gore in books, even for kids, but this was very out of left field. I don't know what kid is an audience for this, because it's nobody I know. If they like it though, great! No hate. Just definitely not a book for me, I clearly don't like being slapped with a surprise genre bend.
librariandest's review against another edition
3.0
If I'm judging this purely as an entertaining genre mystery for kids, this is great. Classic Haddix, which is to say: it's a page-turner that leaves you craving the next in the series.
If I'm judging this as literature, I'm a little disappointed with the characters. I thought Finn seemed more like five years old (he's meant to be eight). Maybe this was due to the audiobook narrator's performance. Either way, he's meant to be the baby of the family and it didn't always feel believable. Chess, Emma and Natalie also fell a little flat -- all were somewhat reduced to one memorable characteristic (Emma = logic, Chess = responsible, Natalie = alpha).
As science fiction, I'm left scratching my head as to how some of the alternate dimension stuff works. For example, But the confusing bits might be explained in later books.
If I'm judging this as literature, I'm a little disappointed with the characters. I thought Finn seemed more like five years old (he's meant to be eight). Maybe this was due to the audiobook narrator's performance. Either way, he's meant to be the baby of the family and it didn't always feel believable. Chess, Emma and Natalie also fell a little flat -- all were somewhat reduced to one memorable characteristic (Emma = logic, Chess = responsible, Natalie = alpha).
As science fiction, I'm left scratching my head as to how some of the alternate dimension stuff works. For example,
Spoiler
Why would the siblings in the alternate world have the same birthdays if they have a different father? That makes no sense to me.cjmedinger's review against another edition
4.0
Great middle grade mystery with just a little scifi thrown in. Very reminiscent of Wrinkle in Time.
tammys_take's review against another edition
4.0
This was really well done. Mystery, suspense, fast pacing, kept me guessing! Definitely reading the sequel.