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A review by avalinahsbooks
The Missing Mortals by Ellen Alexander
3.0
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I really loved the first Dinswood book, The Secret of Dinswood – because it was a story of kids in a school that’s in a castle, solving all sorts of pirate related mysteries and looking for treasure! Super exciting.
But it was harder to get into the second book, The Missing Mortals. First of all, because I felt like it didn’t kick in for a very long time – even though the initial mystery was set, somehow things just didn’t get a move on. A lot of the book is dedicated to the internal teen and pre-teen struggles of the characters – there are now themes of jealousy between the two main characters, Emma and Doug, despite them not really having a relationship yet, and there’s also romantic tension between the two other main characters.
That’s all good – however, I feel like it’s a tough age to write – the characters are still to young for a relationship (at least in the author’s eyes), but they’re old enough for the angst. I didn’t enjoy that part of it very much, because what I look for in a middle grade is the lightness – the absence of angst, but I do admit that for a lot of pre-teens this might be an important topic, so it’s probably just me. But it’s not only that – the story itself is quite a bit darker than the first one as well – the kids get threatened and blackmailed and it was just a little too stressful for me, I guess.
Another thing that I didn’t enjoy was something that I felt was mostly absent in the first book – the second book was a lot more “cloyingly Christian” than the first one was. It’s still not as bad as it may be, but “the kids could see it was all by the grace of god” or stuff like that – that’s just not my thing. Long story short, if you’re not Christian, you’ll probably feel alienated and roll your eyes. The first book felt much more accessible to everyone.
Despite all this though, I still hope the series goes on! I would like to know what happens next, although I guess the series will probably be leaving the middle grade setting and move up to young adult (and this could have even been the book that bridges the gap). Either way, I’m interested in seeing where the story goes!
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
I really loved the first Dinswood book, The Secret of Dinswood – because it was a story of kids in a school that’s in a castle, solving all sorts of pirate related mysteries and looking for treasure! Super exciting.
But it was harder to get into the second book, The Missing Mortals. First of all, because I felt like it didn’t kick in for a very long time – even though the initial mystery was set, somehow things just didn’t get a move on. A lot of the book is dedicated to the internal teen and pre-teen struggles of the characters – there are now themes of jealousy between the two main characters, Emma and Doug, despite them not really having a relationship yet, and there’s also romantic tension between the two other main characters.
That’s all good – however, I feel like it’s a tough age to write – the characters are still to young for a relationship (at least in the author’s eyes), but they’re old enough for the angst. I didn’t enjoy that part of it very much, because what I look for in a middle grade is the lightness – the absence of angst, but I do admit that for a lot of pre-teens this might be an important topic, so it’s probably just me. But it’s not only that – the story itself is quite a bit darker than the first one as well – the kids get threatened and blackmailed and it was just a little too stressful for me, I guess.
Another thing that I didn’t enjoy was something that I felt was mostly absent in the first book – the second book was a lot more “cloyingly Christian” than the first one was. It’s still not as bad as it may be, but “the kids could see it was all by the grace of god” or stuff like that – that’s just not my thing. Long story short, if you’re not Christian, you’ll probably feel alienated and roll your eyes. The first book felt much more accessible to everyone.
Despite all this though, I still hope the series goes on! I would like to know what happens next, although I guess the series will probably be leaving the middle grade setting and move up to young adult (and this could have even been the book that bridges the gap). Either way, I’m interested in seeing where the story goes!
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter