Reviews

Krazyland by Maria Romasco-Moore

buggy1313's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

jrharris's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

This was fun! I gave it three stars but if half stars were a thing on NetGalley, it would be 3 1/2. I went into this book mostly blind. I thought the cover was intriguing and after i requested it, I realized it was a middle school level book. So I wasn’t completely sure where this was gonna go. 

Overall, I liked it! I thought the concept was fun. Ball pits are such a nostalgic thing to me so the idea of there being a completely different world hidden at the bottom of one was really fun. There were some very vivid descriptions in the other world that definitely grossed me out (the ocean of oil) and some that were just hilarious. Bertha was a really fun character and I wish she was fleshed out a little more.

I will say the ending drags a bit for me. Also, I got hints early on about Mercy’s  grandfather but we never really get a thorough explanation on his actions. It kind of just felt like it was thrown in. Other than that, i think this is a fun read if you’re trying to find things similar to a Goosebumps reading level with minor spooks. Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC! All opinions are my own. 

dtaylorbooks's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

KRAZYLAND was a fun, silly middle grade horror book that I quite enjoyed. I got a little turned around when the doubles came into play, but it evened out pretty quickly and I settled back into the madness.

To say that, as a kid, I never imagined the ball pit being a gateway to somewhere else would be me lying. I love that it’s being done here, and in a ‘Are Your Afraid of the Dark’ sort of way that turns reality into something warped and creepy and literally ready to eat you. I loved the spiders that tried to stop Nathan (mirrored on a game in Krazyland where you basically do Whac-A-Mole with spiders and use your feet instead of a mallet) in their little colored sneakers. Big Bertha was kind of terrifying, and I liked how Nathan pointed out how messed up it was that Bertha is treated as a villain simply because she’s bigger. I support that message in there.

I think this book could have been even darker, but that’s my own demented horror brain going places that it probably shouldn’t go for a middle grade novel. The fake people that could be pulled into the real world added a somewhat sinister edge to everything, even though they really weren’t used that way. I picked up on it, anyway.

The book isn’t particularly earth-shattering or groundbreaking, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s fun and creepy and will make you look at ball pits differently. And I can say, as an insurance underwriter, an activity center like this that DOESN’T regularly clean their ball pits is horrifying enough. I was really amused by the bizarro world that Nathan ended up in (multiple times), especially with the man-eating chicken wing sharks and evil mozzarella sticks.

There’s not a ton of character development, at least from Nathan. Mercy has a bigger arc than he does. And I don’t quite understand her “allergies.” I think it would have been fine if she just had narcolepsy, but it kept going back to being allergic to the world. While I am empathize with the sentiment, here it just played out kind of odd and unnecessary. Despite that, KRAZYLAND is fun and promises a good time.

4

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

our_bookish_reads's review

mysterious medium-paced

2.5

Well, one way to explain this story is to say it was interesting and I think even that is an understatement. I'm sure my kids would like it more than I did though. 
It didn't particularly "grab" me or suck me in, however it did get right into it, which I liked. I didn't care much for some of the characters, but that's me.