A review by letsreadwithcats
The Darkdeep by Brendan Reichs, Ally Condie

3.0

I thought the Darkdeep was a well written, cute middle grade novel. I think I would have liked it a lot more when I was younger than I did now. Part of it was that I was expecting something kind of creepy along the lines of Neil Gaiman. I thought the Darkdeep was more goofy than creepy. I liked the cast of characters, they were all pretty well defined by the end of the book. But it was also ridiculous that they never told any adult what was happening. I get it. You can’t in middle grade/young adult novels because the focus is on the kids and them being the heroes. But still. Having an adult might have been helpful. Especially with some of the protagonists “kid logic”. They were constantly declaring things to be impossible and stating, “that’s not how it works.” Okay kids, but realistically you don’t know what you are dealing with and have no idea what is/isn’t possible. Emma was particularly annoying is this regard.

I was also a little disappointed that the ending is a cliffhanger. Personally I was much more interested in the “thing in the jar” than the figments but at the same time I don’t think I care enough to continue the series. Overall cute and enjoyable but not a middle grade strong enough to transcend its target audience. It’s okay, not everyone can be Kate DiCamillo.