Time for some mini-reviews! What are mini-reviews, you ask? As the title suggests, these are short reviews, consisting of one paragraph tops, about a book. It’s a way to catch up on the books I’ve read a while ago, but never got around to reviewing.
The Dead Kid Detective Agency
Title: The Dead Kid Detective Agency
Author: Evan Munday
Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Children’s Books
Rating: 2 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Thirteen-year-old October Schwartz is new in town; she spends her free time in the Sticksville Cemetery and it isn’t long before she befriends the ghosts of five dead teenagers, each from a different era of the past. They form the Dead Kid Detective Agency, a group committed to solving Sticksville’s most mysterious mysteries.
Review: The plot idea was solid, but unfortunately that was just about the only thing solid about this book. It started out slow, the pacing was way off, the characters were difficult to connect to, and the main character was just dull. The mystery was predictable, and the writing didn’t flow particularly well.
Ashes
Title: Ashes (Ashes Trilogy #1)
Author: Ilsa J. Bick
Genre: Young Adult, Zombies, Dystopian
Rating: 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
It could happen tomorrow . . .
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.
Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.
For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling post-apocalyptic novel about a world that could become ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.
Review: God, I loved this book. Everything about t is awesome – from the post-apocalyptic setting, to the characters, to their struggles to survive. The writing is sublime. While called a zombie book though, there are no actual zombies – what happens to the kids is just about ten times as terrifying.
Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten!
Title: Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten!
Author: Trisha Speed Shaskan
Genre: Children’s Books, Fairytales
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase: Amazon
OF COURSE you think I did a horrible thing by eating Little Red Riding Hood and her granny. You don’t know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you… This fractured fairy tale provides a fresh perspective on a well-known tale.
Review: Not my favorite fairytale retelling, but definitely entertaining and humorous. Shows there are two sides of every story, and not afraid to twist well-known tropes.
[…] Mini-Review: The Dead Kid’s Detective Agency, Ashes, Red Riding Hood was Rotten […]