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itsmeyseniab's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
WHAT IN THE WORLD(S).
This was FANTASTIC. I went into this not knowing anything about it aside from that it's a fantasy that follows children who lived in different worlds, and I highly suggest going into this with as little information as possible too. That being said, I don't want to go too in depth, but I will say that this was super atmospheric and I ADORED the characters! I read this via audiobook and Cynthia Hopkins did an incredible job bringing this story more to life! I can't wait to continue on with this series, I'm hooked!!
This was FANTASTIC. I went into this not knowing anything about it aside from that it's a fantasy that follows children who lived in different worlds, and I highly suggest going into this with as little information as possible too. That being said, I don't want to go too in depth, but I will say that this was super atmospheric and I ADORED the characters! I read this via audiobook and Cynthia Hopkins did an incredible job bringing this story more to life! I can't wait to continue on with this series, I'm hooked!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Minor: Animal cruelty
marisa_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
First of all, if the premise is interesting to you, go ahead and give it a go! It’s short enough that I think it’s worth the read. This is a well beloved book and I seem to be of unpopular opinion. So go for it and come to your own conclusions.
What I liked:
-the premise,
-the inner thoughts of the characters. (BEAUTIFUL writing here. So many good lines.)
-the (attempt at) diversity.
What I didn’t like:
I’m gonna get pretty critical here because this book has gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback.Therefore, I don’t think the negative aspects of this review will have much impact on a book that is not BAD and doesn’t deserve hate. I don’t want this review to dissuade anyone to read it. I just think that it could have been better executed.
(Spoilers)
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The murder mystery:
This didn’t work for me. It didn’t add any character development, and it wasn’t suspenseful or thrilling. It almost felt like the author just wanted to make the book more horrifying and gory because she likes horror and gore. I don’t know what the purpose was. Maybe it was to show how these twisted worlds affected the minds of the children who inhabited them? If that’s the case...did we really need a WHOLE murder mystery plot? Wasn’t there a shorter, less time consuming way to show the wickedness of some of these worlds? I’m not against horror or gore, but the whodunnit just didn’t work for me in this story. The book simply wasn’t long enough to do it well AND tackle the other themes the author wanted to address.
The mystery was solved like and read like a middle grade mystery. It didn’t fit at all with the gore and horror and (minor) sexual content that was included. This kind of juxtaposition of writing style and content COULD be interesting... but for me, the execution was lacking.
The dialogue:
The dialogue between characters felt very contrived. I never felt like I was reading real dialogue. I was always hyper aware that the author was the one manufacturing these conversations. Another reviewer said it well: “it read like a diversity PSA”. I would add that it also read like a sex positivity PSA. It didn’t feel like the characters were talking to each other. It felt like the author was talking to the readers and educating us about feminism and gender/sexuality identity.
The racial diversity:
There was one Latino character and one Japanese character. They were both a little token-y for me.
A Latino whose fantasy world is Dia de Los Muertos? If he doesn’t feel at home in this (our) world, why would that be a world he would have been attracted to? It seemed like an excuse to use the aesthetic of dancing skeletons.
And the Japanese girl was a bit of a caricature as well. As another reviewer described her as, “a (literal) manic pixie dream girl”.
Other thoughts:
(I’m not gonna speak on the ace rep because I read the author is on the ace spectrum so I don’t feel like it’s my place to speak on that except to say it’s great that we have an ace character. There’s definitely not enough in our media and I appreciate it and think it’s important.)
I did like the way that kade talked about his own trans identity and the way that it connected to his experience in his Prism world. However I found the discussion that Nancy and Sumi had afterwards fell victim to that diversity PSA writing.
I don’t want to be over critical because I think the intentions were good. More authors need to be making these attempts at including a diverse cast of characters and tackling these issues (and improve and learn from the feedback they get from reviewers).
I don’t fault the author for the attempt, but for me, it was sloppy and...a little heavy handed and on the nose. The diversity was explained to us, rather than weaved into the story.
(But perhaps there are many people who still need that direct textbook explanation. I feel like I am personally beyond that necessity in my own journey of self education, but can admit that society as a whole isn’t there yet.)
I think this would have worked for a middle grade novel, or even YA; but this book is categorized as adult fiction. So I would have appreciated a little more nuance. Perhaps if there hadn’t been the unnecessary murder plot, there could have been time to do these characterizations more gracefully. I think the author tried to put too much into too such a short book. They either needed to strip it down, or write a longer book.
Another specific thing I want to address was the explanation for why more girls are pulled into these worlds than boys.
The author’s explanation was that “boys will be boys” is a self fulfilling prophecy and that its easy for girls to disappear because society cares more about what happens to our boys.
While I appreciate the commentary the author was trying to make here, this explanation fell flat for me. It just didn’t make sense and having Nancy say “oh that makes sense” didn’t make it make more sense to me.
My friend pointed out that it would have been more powerful (AND make more sense) if brown and black children were the ones who got lost more easily.
My Rating System:
1. DNF*
2. I didn’t like it, but I finished it. Don’t recommend.
3. I liked aspects of it, would recommend to some.
4. Great book, would recommend to most.
5. My favorites**
* I don’t rate all DNFs
** subject to bias and not necessarily something I would recommend to others
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Torture, and Transphobia
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Dementia, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Vomit
penofpossibilities's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
First of all, this is not what I expected at all! People have described this series to me as something whimsical and fantastical, but it felt more like a thriller/mild horror to me. It was a weird story filled with creepy characters and gory scenes. If that's your thing, I think you'll definitly like this. But I was not expecting it.
I had difficulty rating this as the book was actally too short for me to get fully into it or for it to develop any of the characters or worldbuilding. There was alot of info dump-y dialogue that was almost boring to read. I felt very little connection to the characters or what was going on.
Props to the author for writing asexual and trans rep (main character and main antagonist as well, so it got a big place in the story!! :)) and for the interesting change of having creepy unlikable and gruesome main characters instead of the usual tropes.
But I could not say I was invested enough to feel a great desire to continue the series. I might, though, just to find out how the writing progresses and if the plot goes anywhere at all.
Lastly I would like to point out that some of the ways the author discussed mental health in this were very... unsetteling and I did not like them. For example, we have a character calling their school 'the looney bin', another saying something among the lines of 'our parents will put us on schizophrenic medication we don't need', and let's not forget Nancy's saying she barely eats but she 'doesn't have an eating disorder'. It just seemed incredibly disrespectful and unfeeling towards people actually camping with these issues? And the baltant way in which it is said could be very triggering for people.
Overall, this felt like a weird short story, perfect for a quick autumn read, but definetly not anything that makes me feel glad I read it. I feel rather meh about it.
I had difficulty rating this as the book was actally too short for me to get fully into it or for it to develop any of the characters or worldbuilding. There was alot of info dump-y dialogue that was almost boring to read. I felt very little connection to the characters or what was going on.
Props to the author for writing asexual and trans rep (main character and main antagonist as well, so it got a big place in the story!! :)) and for the interesting change of having creepy unlikable and gruesome main characters instead of the usual tropes.
But I could not say I was invested enough to feel a great desire to continue the series. I might, though, just to find out how the writing progresses and if the plot goes anywhere at all.
Lastly I would like to point out that some of the ways the author discussed mental health in this were very... unsetteling and I did not like them. For example, we have a character calling their school 'the looney bin', another saying something among the lines of 'our parents will put us on schizophrenic medication we don't need', and let's not forget Nancy's saying she barely eats but she 'doesn't have an eating disorder'. It just seemed incredibly disrespectful and unfeeling towards people actually camping with these issues? And the baltant way in which it is said could be very triggering for people.
Overall, this felt like a weird short story, perfect for a quick autumn read, but definetly not anything that makes me feel glad I read it. I feel rather meh about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia
misssleepless's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
“Nobody gets to tell me how my story ends but me.”
The ace rep wasn't the best but what bothered me much more even though it was only a very small part of the book was Kade's backstory because why would a trans guy get kicked out of his world for transphobic reasons if that world was supposed to be perfect for him??
The ace rep wasn't the best but what bothered me much more even though it was only a very small part of the book was Kade's backstory because why would a trans guy get kicked out of his world for transphobic reasons if that world was supposed to be perfect for him??
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Medical content, and Transphobia
Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Deadnaming, and Vomit
nickoliver's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Second read April 2021
I loved this so much, and I'm now very excited to read the rest of the series! Or at least the five out of six books I own.
First read April 2018
I finally started this series, which everyone and their grandmother seems to absolutely adore . And I'm right there with them!
I did feel like the story could have been a little longer. Some aspects of it were too confusing - for example, I had trouble imagining some of the worlds like Jack and Jill's, or Kade's, or Sumi's. And the ending felt a little too rushed? Like, the climax is over in like a paragraph or something; I actually almost missed it.
But I'm very excited to read the rest of the series! I'm usually not the biggest fan of prequels, but in this case, I'm definitely looking forward to reading them!
*More thoughts coming later ... MUCH LATER, probably, knowing my chaotic ass*
I loved this so much, and I'm now very excited to read the rest of the series! Or at least the five out of six books I own.
First read April 2018
I finally started this series, which everyone and their grandmother seems to absolutely adore . And I'm right there with them!
I did feel like the story could have been a little longer. Some aspects of it were too confusing - for example, I had trouble imagining some of the worlds like Jack and Jill's, or Kade's, or Sumi's. And the ending felt a little too rushed? Like, the climax is over in like a paragraph or something; I actually almost missed it.
But I'm very excited to read the rest of the series! I'm usually not the biggest fan of prequels, but in this case, I'm definitely looking forward to reading them!
*More thoughts coming later ... MUCH LATER, probably, knowing my chaotic ass*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Acephobia/Arophobia
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