Reviews - The Face on the Milk Carton

778 reviews for:

The Face on the Milk Carton

Caroline B. Cooney

3.45 AVERAGE

saboyer's review against another edition

1.0

Nope.

breezie_reads's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was the most boring thriller/mystery I've ever read. Children's book or not, I mean, come on.

If Janie never saw pictures of herself as a toddler or baby, how would she recognize the milk carton photo as her anyway? No one looks the same 12 years later. And she continuously flipped between "I don't care about that other family, my parents are my parents" and trying to figure out if she really is the girl on the milk carton. Which is understandable to be confused and what to figure out what's going on or what happened, but there was no build up to any of the changing emotions. It was just "I still loved my parents and I really don't care about that other family" but immediately in the following sentence she had to force herself to tell her dad that she loved him and give him a hug. It was too flip-floppy to make any sense and it was more teenage angst over a boy than it was a thriller.

And again, I know this is a children's book so I shouldn't be judging it based off of adult thrillers/mysteries, but I just can't get over how flat and forced and wishy-washy everything was to have actually enjoyed this.

bella_lettore's review against another edition

3.0

This book was not that great, I think maybe if I had read this for some kind of school project when I was maybe eleven or twelve I might have actually liked it. But also I think that there were some parts in the book that were a little too mature for the audience that this book was intended for.

read_with_riley's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

agiali's review against another edition

1.0

1/5 Stars

When I genuinely say there was not a single character in this book I liked; I mean it. Janie was genuinely a really annoying character to me and I couldn't really follow the storyline. It was a quick read, that I'm glad is finally over. I will not be continuing the series, which is tragic because I genuinely thought I would like this. A mystery kidnapping novel with mild romance is a perfect recipe to me but was executed poorly. Will most likely be donating this book!