Pretty decent juvenile fiction
356611
This was a good story.  It was a pretty fast read, and the story line kept me interested.  I would have liked it better if it was written at more of an adult level, but I knew what I was getting into.  I'm giving it four stars for meeting the genre pretty well.
524976
If you're reading this, you probably either read the book or are considering it. It's not groundbreaking stuff, so if you're looking for something unlike anything you've read before, this isn't it. It's necessary to keep in mind that the main characters are teenagers and act like teenagers; they act irrationally, their emotions are a bit extreme, and they sometimes aren't the brightest. I wasn't wowed by "Angelbound," but I was entertained enough that I kept reading. The plot is somewhat predictable. There were twists and reveals that weren't much of a surprise to anyone who'd been paying attention. It's young love, some ass kicking, world-building, and parent-teen conflict. Those who've given it the lowest reviews seemed to do so after taking offense at those who had given it the highest reviews. Don't expect it to be something it's not, and you may find it enjoyable. It's not literature, it's YA-ish, fantasy entertainment. Those who've enjoyed it most are likely fans of the YA fantasy genre and likely of the age and temperament to relate well to its main characters. I enjoyed it enough that I purchased the next book.
3044113
(Reviewed by a 16-year old boy.)

This is similar in style and content to "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".  It's less depressing in a way, since there are more bright spots in the protagonist's life.  It's somewhat amusing, the characters are fairly realistic, and the story draws you in fairly quickly.

However, the author was working too hard at this.  Firstly, it seemed that we were supposed to feel really bad for the boy, but there wasn't anything very convincing or compelling to justify that.  In fact, the story comes across as a bit wishy-washy, middle-of-the-road teenage angst, just not all that fascinating.  There were also some confusing elements in the story because of events or circumstances not fully described, or characters left incomplete.  All this detracts from the reader's engagement in the story and therefore the enjoyment of reading it.

Overall, it's not bad.  If you're a fan of this sort of book, you might very well love it.  I didn't, but I can't get very negative about it either.
4178317
This book begins interestingly enough and progresses rather quickly into a tale of magic, mystery and fantasy much like the Pern series. If I had to guess, I would say that the author loosely modeled this book after the Pern books, as many of the elements were similar.

I liked the main character very much. Micah is the type of character that doesn't start out as the strongest person in the book, but you get the opportunity to watch him grow and become something incredible along the way, which I thought added credibility to his character.

There were a few points in this book where I felt there was an overabundance of information that could have been thinned out a little to make the story flow a bit better. The story itself is really good and enchanted me enough to keep reading.

I was a bit surprised by the amount of violence and gore in this novel. From the cover I had assumed this was for younger audiences, at perhaps a mid grade YA level. I would definitely not recommend this book for the younger end of the YA audience.

The secondary characters were okay. I did get the opinion on a few occasions that they were a bit flat and black and white. What you see is what you get. There really was not a lot of character profiling going on for the reader, they were either evil or they were good with little explanation.

For the most part, this book kept me entertained and was interesting and well written enough that I would be curious to see how the other books play out.

If you are looking for a fantasy novel that will invite you into a new world, this may be just the thing.

This review is based on a digital ARC from Netgalley and the publisher, Open Road Media.
3348866
What if we had it all backwards about children's books? What if authors like A. A. Milne and Lewis Carroll hadn't thought up the stories that made them famous, but were simply reporting (with some adjustments) what the children in their lives (Christopher Robin, Alice Liddell, etc.) had told them about real life fantastic experiences? This is the central conceit of Lisa Goldstein's DARK CITIES UNDERGROUND, which brings together kiddie lit, urban fantasy, Egyptian mythology, and more.

The good: Goldstein reveals the details of the hidden world over the first four-fifths of the book, keeping a reasonable pace while sustaining compelling mysteries. Her weaving together of folkloric, literate, historical, and religious elements is skillful and (in a fantasy sort of way) mostly plausible, memorable, and entertaining. Also, it's not overlong or overly complicated -- a blessing in times when authors often pile on characters and subplots in order to pad the page count. Finally, the tentative romance that Goldstein develops between a 30-ish, hippy-ish single mom and a stodgy, divorced, 50-ish recluse is more charming than it sounds.

The bad: Goldstein's prose style is plain and distant; she's not a lot of fun to read. Her dialogue is often stilted and doesn't always seem appropriate to the speaker -- as when a 4-year-old girl talks like a child twice her age. While Goldstein begins with some clever ideas, she has difficulty figuring out what to do with them. She gets by with a slow reveal through most of the book, but by the last fifth of the book she has to lay all of her cards on the table ... and what she shows us isn't pretty. What we get in the end is a bizarre steampunk supervillain with a historical connection to the London Underground (hence the subway train on the dust cover), and a frenetic sequence of action scenes that fit poorly with the rest of the book, followed by a few pages of quick, pat resolutions. In other words, the conclusion is a lot less satisfying than it could be.

The bottom line: DARK CITIES UNDERGROUND has a good deal to offer urban fantasy fans. It's not a flawless book by any stretch, but it is generally compelling and a fairly quick read.
4250117
I have to say it reads like the author is living vicariously through the main character. It's really hard to pull off first person narrative and still keep secrets until the end without it coming off contrived.

Still, it's a solid teen superhero yarn with interesting supporting characters. I would recommend it to younger readers with moderate expectations.
3892532
This book has received a lot of praise, I purchased the Kindle version after reading a few of the positive reviews (and some of the negative too).  I'm not familiar with any of Gaiman's other work, so I can only evaluate this on it's own merits.  Overall:  I liked this book.  I think it is probably worth a read, if only for the premise.  Yes, it borrows heavily from The Jungle Book, Gaiman readily acknowledges this - it shouldn't dissuade you (unless you really hate The Jungle Book, you monster).

That being said, there is some valid criticism.  The plot is disjointed at times, and seems as if it is in the process of being conceived as you read - leaving a collection of scarcely connected chapters that focus on the adventures of Bod, the main character.  Combined, these tell a loosely knitted story that doesn't really come together until the last act.  Had it not been for this last portion of the book I would have reviewed it at three stars or less.  I believe the book would probably be more enjoyed by younger readers (tweens, mostly), but don't take that as an insult.  It was still an entertaining read, and if you're looking for a quick read you could certainly do worse.
4560996
The idea of writing any Lovecraft themes into fiction for younger kids kind of intrigues me because it's such an interesting challenge. Thanks to the standards set years ago by Stine's Goosebumps series, publishers are fairly aware that younger children are not only willing to read books where the endings might be ambiguous and the horror is more than just someone in a rubber mask ala Scooby Doo. No worries parents, the horror in here is still fairly squeaky clean and there's no blood or gore here at all, so if you're worried about that then don't be. It's not that type of book.

One thing to remember if you're going to be one of the adult readers drawn into this by the flashy cover and the word "Lovecraft" stamped on the middle is that this is ultimately a children's book for readers in the . The plot here is more developed than the chapter books, but this is written for those readers who aren't quite ready for the Harry Potter sized tomes but want more than what Magic Treehouse has to offer. Adult readers will be bored silly, but then we're not the target audience for books like this and plot/character development on this level is par for the course when it comes to the middle readers like this. I wouldn't really include this in this review except that the whole reason I picked the book up was because of the exact reasons I listed above and I know there will be others like me.

Now story-wise, there's a pretty good tale here and I'm surprised at how developed everything is for a book of this nature. A lot of tween/pre-tween books tend to lean towards having fairly light plots that are rather blunt and straight forward to the point of being able to be summed up in 2-3 sentences. You're not going to find J.K. Rowling-esque intricacy here, but I was pretty impressed at the groundwork set up in this volume and some of the twists I found here. It's the sort of thing that I know my Goosebump reading nephew would undoubtedly love, especially since you have "smarter than your average rat" two-headed rodents, tentacles threatening to overpower unsuspecting schoolkids, and sinister teachers. It's very much the type of escapist read that young readers will want and I know that it's something I would've adored when I was younger. The characters are decent here, although I have to admit that I was more taken with Pip and Squeak than with many of the various human characters in the book.

Now the only thing that keeps me from really giving it five stars is that at times this book suffers from "middle book-itis". The story here wants to be more, but feels like it's occasionally smoothed over or made more easy to digest in an attempt to keep it from possibly being too challenging for its target audience. I can understand that to a point and appreciate why it's being done, but it does sort of feel a teensy bit bland at times- especially when you hold it against stuff like the big mansion reveal and the hamster scene.  I'm trying not to be spoilerish by mentioning these, but when you get to these scenes you'll understand why these stand out so much in comparison to some of the water treading portions. In the end though, it's no biggie for the younger readers and many will either be completely willing to overlook this fact or they won't bother noticing it in the first place- they'll be too captivated by the story.

Overall? Definitely something to get for kids who love Goosebumps. Gilman might not be Stine, but he puts a lot of love and attention into this book overall.
1730685
I would happily recommend this book to an 8- to 14-year-old. It's a fun story, a neat take on the classic fairy-tales. So why only 3 stars? It's just not terribly well written. Every single thing is spelled out, leaving nothing to the imagination. For example: "Alex suddenly became very tense. It had just occurred to her that, along with all the characters she had grown up loving, all the ones she hated and feared actually existed, too. It made her feel very uneasy and very unsafe."

The 3rd-person narration is mostly from Alex and Connor's point of view, but every once in a while there's a paragraph of another character's internal thoughts and feelings -- not often enough to be an omniscient narrator, so it just feels random. Alex and Connor sometimes behave like naive young children and sometimes like children wise beyond their years, but not in a complex character way, just in a random way. And there are little things, like using the same word twice in one short paragraph. All in all, I think the whole thing needed a much harsher editor.

It's a pretty fast read, but it is long, so perhaps 10-14 would be a better age range, plus younger but more advanced readers. If I remember correctly, the protagonists are supposed to be in the fifth grade, which would normally skew it a bit younger, but their maturity level is so inconsistent that I think it could appeal to a pretty wide age range on an emotional level. It's long and has a decently varied vocabulary, but writing is not at all dense or complicated. Definitely tough to pin down the appropriate age range!

I truly don't think all the things that bothered me would prevent most kids from enjoying the story, so again, I would happily recommend it to any child who seemed interested. But if, like me, you're an adult who loves fractured/retold/reinterpreted fairly tales, you can afford to skip this one. Actually, it's probably a pretty good screenplay, so maybe we can all go see the movie someday!

(Note: I received a free advance reading copy of this book from the publisher at an American Library Association Annual Conference. I was not required to write a positive review. Thank you, Little, Brown!)
2119697
Pretty good little story. Nice, fresh look at the whole witchy-thing. Went a little long on the loves me/loves me not thing, but I guess it was fairly necessary to the story.
I like Mouse, the Eternal Troubled Teen.
Could have used some tightening up, but a real fine first novel.
Eastern European traditions and folklore is sadly neglected, and this is a nice take
2960801
Interesting that an early 'tween book has a tie-in picture book, but "Nutik, the Wolf Pup" was written to stand alone, so perhaps it is more made for adult fans of the Julie series.

The overall story is moderately good, though perhaps the feel-good ending would not have been the best option. However, the story follows along with the events of "Julie's Wolf Pack," and so a deviation would have its own issues.

The artwork has a very organic feel that fits in well with the setting.

A good book to check out from the library to read to your little one, but perhaps too advanced for new readers. This would fit well in the collection of any little wolf lover, but is not a staple for most children's libraries.
3583096
This story is abour Maud Flynn, a rebelious little orphan who is rescued from an orphanage by Hyacinth, a charming lady, who, for some reason, wants a "secret child".  Little Maud is desperate for love and eager to please, but things are not quite right.

I may be damning this with faint praise, but this was a lot better than much of the other "children's literature" I have read lately, particularly certain horrible Newbery winners.  The writing flows smoothly, and it is not boring.  It has a reasonably sympathetic child heroine, and includes some fairly colorful happenings.  The period atmosphere worked well for me, and I had only minor issues with plausibility.

The story loses a little steam after a while.  The reader soon figures out what is going on, and, after that, the remaining mysteries are not quite so intriguing.  The story also spends far too much time on a pair of completely useless characters who hang about wringing their hands and getting in the way of the story, and whose only purpose, it seems, is to serve as a mouthpiece for certain [***] ideas which the author seems to want to promote.  Nonetheless, I was never tempted to put it down.
2653951
Incidentally, this wasn't a bad book. The premise was interesting, the characters somewhat intriguing, and the writing was palatable for a YA novel. I had high hopes for the following books, but this first one wasn't bad!
911127
A good young adult story, with generally believable characters.
4460170
This was it was a decent read. The author is fairly eloquent with her words, despite the fact that the fictional character is alleged to be a high school junior who was left back once; so it's incredibly annoying because while descriptive, I am also fairly certain that it's not now a once held back high school junior from lower-middle class NH speaks. Story line is good, and it was short. I was fortunate enough to read this for free, but I would have been disappointed if I had paid for it. I am also 34 years old so I think this would have been a better book if I were closer in age to Sugar (~18).
2163464
A decent, good-hearted young adult novel with a few "once out of the well" too-convenient-to-believe moments that make you raise an eyebrow.
3639015
I was looking for something "different" to read when I picked this up on a "Countdown Deal" a while back.  And that's pretty much what a got.  This is a mostly light, sometimes even shallow, alterverse read about super-powered beings.  The story is told with a good sense of humor, and sometimes borders on being a little "campy." I don't care much for stories told in the first-person point of view, but this was still a decent read, as long as you don't mind Penny's adolescent storytelling voice. I did think it could use some professional editing.  The pacing was a bit odd in parts of the story. Some of the day-to-day stuff dragged while some of the "action" sequences seemed rushed in comparison.  Some of the superhero mythology and alterverse history weren't well explained.  Other times, with that and "Teddy Bears" gameplay, it bordered on boringly-overkill description and was just a bit "uneven" overall. The story seemed to end abruptly with no real resolution to the kids' superhero vs. villain conundrum, so I'm guessing there may room for more books. Content-wise, there shouldn't be much here for parents with young teen readers to be concerned about other than rule breaking and some poor decisions.  The story does has a good base with themes of friendship and loyalty. There is little to no sexual content, other than some innuendo about costumes and one kiss.  Overall, pretty refreshingly clean stuff.  I would suggest if you're looking at this for your kids, you read it first, but I always would recommend that any way.