Review: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fun middle grade "scary story". It wasn't over the top scary so those who want to dip their toes into horror but don't want to be terrified, this would be a good one to start with. It still has Arden's beautiful writing while being whimsical enough to appeal to young readers. This book is perfect for Halloween/fall time when you really want to read something spooky. This is reminiscent of reading RL Stine’s Fear Street series for me as a kid, which I loved!

This follows Ollie, a 6th grade girl who has recently lost someone very close to her. She is grieving and uses books as a coping mechanism. She comes across a strange book by even stranger circumstances, but she doesn’t know that this book will save her and her friends on a very weird field trip. As the trip unfolds, Ollie teams up with two of her classmates, Brian and Coco, to figure out what is going on and try to find a way out of what seems like a nightmare. The trio is warned to stay in small spaces to stay safe. Guided by the book and prompts from Ollie’s watch, the trio faces scary situations and creatures on their way to save their class and themselves.

Overall, this was a fun little book and I’m looking forward to Dead Voices. I love Arden’s writing and I really enjoyed this.

I was provided an ARC of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book was published in September of 2018.  Dead Voices is due out at the end of August 2019.

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Review: The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken

The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This was released today February 5, 2019. 

This is the fun and whimsical sequel to The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding, which I adored. This book was a little too whimsical and slow paced for my tastes. It is still fun and has all of the great characters from the first book. I would still highly recommend it to the middle grade crowd.

The plot picks up with Prosper and Alastor heading Downstairs to save Prosper's sister Prue from Alastor's sister Pyra. You would think they would go on some amazing adventure, and they do, it just takes a long time for for the action to develop. This is where the pacing was off for me. The boy and the fiend just kind of wander around dealing with different kinds of fiends and accomplish nothing for about half the book before anything exciting happens. I had so much fun reading the first book, but this one just didn't have the same feel. I think because this takes place in the realm of the fiends, there were many scenes that were just kind of silly that I think middle grade readers will LOVE, I'm going to recommend this series to my 10 year old for sure. This is where the book was just a bit too much on the whimsical side for me.

There is a ton of character development in this book. I was excited that Nell came along for the adventure and we get to know her more and see her develop as a witch. Prosper also develops a ton as a character as he is faced with many tough decisions on his journey to save his sister. We also get to know Alastor better both in the present and in the past as we get quite a bit of his back story when he dealt with Honor Redding and made his original bargain. There are quite a few twists when it comes to the characters in the book that I really liked.

That being said the 2nd half of the book picks up was fairly exciting and a lot happens. There is magic, there are some really interesting fantasy creatures who are really well described, the fiend world of Downstairs is well developed, and I think as far as the story goes it wrapped up nicely.

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Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down by Richard Adams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I don't exactly know how to rate this book.   I actually feel bad that I didn't immediately fall in love with it.  It was recommended so many times and it is well loved by so many.  I chose it to fulfill a book mentioned in another book challenge.  I recently finished up The Waste Lands by Stephen King, and one of the main characters mentions Watership Down.  They also mention Shardik, which Richard Adams also wrote.  As this was recommended many times for the 2017 reading challenge and it was available at the library I took a chance.  I had no idea what it was about, but I think I expected more of a fantasy and this really doesn't have any fantasy elements.  There is no magic or fantastical creatures, and Adams is very clear in the forward that he doesn't make the rabbits do anything that an actual rabbit can't do physically.  You can tell he went to great lengths to portray rabbits and their actions accurately in their natural habitat.

I didn't particularly enjoy Watership Down, but it was beautifully written. I think a younger version of myself would have really loved this book, but adult me just didn't connect with a story about rabbits and told from the perspective of rabbits. And that's is the basic plot line of this story, a group of rabbits takes off from their home or warren because one of the rabbits gets premonitions. This premonition leads them to face many hardships and find a new warren. This leads to new premonitions, and more hardships. All of the hardships that the rabbits face are typical things a rabbit in the wilderness would face weather, humans, predatory animals, hunger, the need for shelter, etc. Once they establish a new home, they come to realize there are no female rabbits in their group, so they figure out a way to explore the lands around them. This leads to a clan war with a nearby warren. The small group of rabbits face many challenges before their adventure is over. This is not a cute, fluffy bunny story. There is danger and violence, and can I just say I had no idea that bunnies could fight like that. I learned a great deal about rabbits from this book.

You can tell that Adams put a ton of work into his research, and you can tell alot of love went into the construction and telling of this story. I really loved the rabbit mythology he created and the stories the rabbits told each other. This definitely gets an A+ for quality of writing, character development, visual description, and plot development. The writing is excellent, and I can see why many love it and it is a favorite. I actually think my boys,would really enjoy this as it is an adventure story, and I think they are at the right age to fall in love with this story. While I didn't love it, I think I might enjoy sharing it and reading it with them.

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