A review by jackiehorne
Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress

3.0

My daughter read this with her dad, then asked me to read it to her so I would know what it was about. There was a lot to like about the book, particularly the voice of the intrusive narrator and the character of Alex. I felt, though, that Kress wasn't that familiar with genre conventions, for she mixed elements from lighthearted adventure, spooky/creepy fantasy (a la Neil Gaiman/CORALINE), horror, and realism together without regard for the way that these different genres set different expectations for their readers. I like it when authors break conventions, but only when they KNOW they are breaking them, and are breaking them for a reason. In this book, it just felt like Kress didn't know any better, didn't know how one genre's conventions are often at odds with another's...

The peripatetic plot also left me confused -- the opening so clearly promises a pirate adventure story, but doesn't deliver it until the final quarter of the book. In between Alex slips into fantasy spaces -- a train where people gradually disappear, a movie set with a talking star octopus, a hotel with no guests -- each fascinating, but with no real connection to the main pirate plot.

An author worth watching...