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emmareadstoomuch 's review for:
The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid
by Colin Meloy
Sometimes, a book just clicks. Right away. No work required: it grabs you from the beginning and absolutely refuses to let go, even when you’re like, Uh, hey, book? I have to go to sleep. It’s three a.m. Or, Excuse me, book? If you could just...I don’t know, chill out for a second? I have places to be and cupcakes to sell and you’re making it impossible for me to put you down thankssomuch.
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/i-have-already-completely-full-on-loved-4-books-in-2018-and-here-they-are/
This book is a monster and did not even PRETEND to listen to me. Repercussions of this book’s asshole-ish-ness include: my tip jar was relatively empty on that particular Saturday, and I had one of the most fun reading experiences of my entire human existence.
It is, honestly, a fair trade. I simply do not have the time to explain that the pink frosting is just vanilla getting in the Valentine’s Day spirit when I could be squeezing in a few more pages of nonstop adventure.
I am now questioning whether the cupcake-selling motif of this review is muddling the point. I work in a cupcake shop? So that’s why I’m being like this.
Anyway.
I should not be surprised at all that I loved this so much. This book follows a band of child pickpockets, living in Marseille, France, in 1961. The cover is beautiful.
(And so are the ILLUSTRATIONS, for God’s sake. As if it weren’t enough for this book to have illustrations generally (as every book should) (yes, double parentheses, because f*ck you), IT IS ILLUSTRATED BY THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE ART IN THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. If you don’t know how I feel about The Mysterious Benedict Society, you don’t know me at all. Technically that series makes up 5% of all the five star ratings I’ve ever given in all my life??? So pretty much YOU SHOULD STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW AND GO READ THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. IMMEDIATELY. You absolute fool.)
Forcing myself to move on: Its cast of characters is completely full-on amazing. I’m talkin’ adolescent vagabonds ranging from identical Senegalese twins to a Southern belle to a cockney girl who can disappear in any crowd to a Russian kid they call The Bear to KID WITH EYEPATCH.
Also, it is FUNNY. And since when are books funny? Like don’t get me wrong, huge book fan over here, but they’re not exactly a nonstop barrel of laughs. It’s just hard to laugh when you’re also holding a brick of pages in your hands and reading words off of them? Is this relatable or not?
All of this is to say that this book made me laugh. Against the odds, apparently.
And the WRITING! Oh, man, the writing. The descriptions. The narration. The second-person addresses to the audience! I could straight up write a love letter to the voice of this story. Adding it to my to-do list now.
But most importantly of all: this book never stops being exciting.
I talk about how much I love middle grade adventure almost as much as I talk about my adoration of well done magical realism, but there’s a goddamn reason for it my guy. Middle grade adventure is what YA could never be: an exciting read with no gross heavy romance to detract, a lot of solid friendships, typically a good sense of humor, and a pretty consistent dose of diversity.
And this book is one of the best examples of that potential for magnificence since its royal highness The Mysterious Benedict Society itself.
ONE OF THE MOST FUN READING EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFETIME.
Bottom line: My new master plan, after conquering the world and forcing everyone to give Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland five stars, is to make all of us start being middle grade book bloggers. Stuff like this is just way too good to miss out on.
4.5
---------
CURRENTLY READING UPDATE
truly this book had me at "band of child pickpockets"
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/i-have-already-completely-full-on-loved-4-books-in-2018-and-here-they-are/
This book is a monster and did not even PRETEND to listen to me. Repercussions of this book’s asshole-ish-ness include: my tip jar was relatively empty on that particular Saturday, and I had one of the most fun reading experiences of my entire human existence.
It is, honestly, a fair trade. I simply do not have the time to explain that the pink frosting is just vanilla getting in the Valentine’s Day spirit when I could be squeezing in a few more pages of nonstop adventure.
I am now questioning whether the cupcake-selling motif of this review is muddling the point. I work in a cupcake shop? So that’s why I’m being like this.
Anyway.
I should not be surprised at all that I loved this so much. This book follows a band of child pickpockets, living in Marseille, France, in 1961. The cover is beautiful.
(And so are the ILLUSTRATIONS, for God’s sake. As if it weren’t enough for this book to have illustrations generally (as every book should) (yes, double parentheses, because f*ck you), IT IS ILLUSTRATED BY THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE ART IN THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. If you don’t know how I feel about The Mysterious Benedict Society, you don’t know me at all. Technically that series makes up 5% of all the five star ratings I’ve ever given in all my life??? So pretty much YOU SHOULD STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW AND GO READ THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. IMMEDIATELY. You absolute fool.)
Forcing myself to move on: Its cast of characters is completely full-on amazing. I’m talkin’ adolescent vagabonds ranging from identical Senegalese twins to a Southern belle to a cockney girl who can disappear in any crowd to a Russian kid they call The Bear to KID WITH EYEPATCH.
Also, it is FUNNY. And since when are books funny? Like don’t get me wrong, huge book fan over here, but they’re not exactly a nonstop barrel of laughs. It’s just hard to laugh when you’re also holding a brick of pages in your hands and reading words off of them? Is this relatable or not?
All of this is to say that this book made me laugh. Against the odds, apparently.
And the WRITING! Oh, man, the writing. The descriptions. The narration. The second-person addresses to the audience! I could straight up write a love letter to the voice of this story. Adding it to my to-do list now.
But most importantly of all: this book never stops being exciting.
I talk about how much I love middle grade adventure almost as much as I talk about my adoration of well done magical realism, but there’s a goddamn reason for it my guy. Middle grade adventure is what YA could never be: an exciting read with no gross heavy romance to detract, a lot of solid friendships, typically a good sense of humor, and a pretty consistent dose of diversity.
And this book is one of the best examples of that potential for magnificence since its royal highness The Mysterious Benedict Society itself.
ONE OF THE MOST FUN READING EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFETIME.
Bottom line: My new master plan, after conquering the world and forcing everyone to give Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland five stars, is to make all of us start being middle grade book bloggers. Stuff like this is just way too good to miss out on.
4.5
---------
CURRENTLY READING UPDATE
truly this book had me at "band of child pickpockets"