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our_bookish_reads's review
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
3.0
I wholeheartedly disagree with the claim of this being for fans of The Twilight Zone. This wasn't that type of story in my opinion, so if you're going to read it based off that, you won't find what you're looking for and best continue the search. I will agree that if you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland and Coraline that you will enjoy this book.
There is potential to be a great book, don't misunderstand, I think for kids that this is a unique, fun, book with a few twists and turns along the way. However, there are a number of plot points that have gaping holes that never were delved into or continued, they just ended abruptly and seemed to have been tossed to the wayside like trash... which is disappointing as my kids (I was reading this to them) and I would have loved to have certain things explained more or better. Likewhere did Balthazar actually end up? How long were the kids actually gone for? How did time actually work there (I got the general gist, but require a pin-point of time)? What happened to grandma Winnie after Sarah,Billy and B.B. left her at the door leading to the Cloud World? There was quite a bit of thought put into making the worlds and I loved that. One of the things I look for in a book is how well the world is written and built, as well as the characters, but we'll get round to that in a minute. The details of each world behind the doors is amazing, I wish they'd been explored more though. None of us were pleased with how rushed the last 10 pages were and how abrupt the ending was. It's also highly disappointing because with all the things that got left open-ended and/or pushed aside, there isn't another book to answer these.
Now on to characters. I think the side characters, Jeb and B.B., had more thought put into them and their personality building. I felt like you get to know them more in the shorter time they get and I ended up really liking them both, although if I am to be honest, Edgar was my favorite character. I was highly suspicious of Jeb for a lot of the bookI had nothing to worry about apparently, because he ends up being a good character The relationship between Sarah and her brother, Billy, was for the most part very spot on. There was a bit of termoil between them, which I fully expected. One of the more unrealistic parts (yes, I know it wasn't real) was the ending because they're all "buddy buddy" so to speak. Characters I wanted to see more of were Grandma Winnie, Edgar, Lefty, Balthazat, Dogsbody and the Cloud Queen. I felt that these characters were rather important to the parts they played in the story, but didn’t get put to use much.
There is potential to be a great book, don't misunderstand, I think for kids that this is a unique, fun, book with a few twists and turns along the way. However, there are a number of plot points that have gaping holes that never were delved into or continued, they just ended abruptly and seemed to have been tossed to the wayside like trash... which is disappointing as my kids (I was reading this to them) and I would have loved to have certain things explained more or better. Like
Now on to characters. I think the side characters, Jeb and B.B., had more thought put into them and their personality building. I felt like you get to know them more in the shorter time they get and I ended up really liking them both, although if I am to be honest, Edgar was my favorite character. I was highly suspicious of Jeb for a lot of the book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Violence, Torture, Confinement, Slavery, and Physical abuse
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