A review by sasha_in_a_box
The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

2.0

Sorry to say that I wasn't impressed. The book is fine at first, with these 3 siblings discovering a missing set of siblings just like them in another part of the country, an unexpected cellphone, a secret room... Intriguing! But then it's boring for a while as they go back and forth a lot across town with a sullen teen and her mother. And then the entire genre flips over and around and it gets weird, and not in a fun or cute way. Imagine you're reading The Mysterious Benedict society and suddenly it's 1984. It's just so bizarre. And very adult in complexity and randomly racheted violence? I'm not against violence or gore in books, even for kids, but this was very out of left field. I don't know what kid is an audience for this, because it's nobody I know. If they like it though, great! No hate. Just definitely not a book for me, I clearly don't like being slapped with a surprise genre bend.