"Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell

I first read this book for a literature class. I didn't really like it then; I didn't dislike it, but I also didn't like it.

Happily, I liked it much better this time around, now that it wasn't compulsory. Also I've read and enjoyed a few surviving-alone-in-the-wilderness books since then, which heightened my appreciation of this one. I actually rather like surviving-alone-in-the-wilderness books, for all that I don't read very many of them.

I found it darkly funny how |Karana and her younger brother are initially set up to be trapped on the island together|, only for |her brother to tragically be killed by wild dogs within like a day|. Granted, Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on a true story, and that's one of the things that happened in that true story, so it's not like the author decided to do it for no good reason. But the |abruptness of it| still mildly amuses me in a gallows-humor sort of way.

There's a |missionary| who shows up in this near the end. He's onscreen for roughly a single page, but he's a good |missionary| from what little we see of him. (Spoiler-tagged because that's sort of an ending spoiler.)

This review is part of my first completed quest.

The cover image was scanned by yours truly, because I could not for the life of me find a good image on the Internet of the version we have. Any defects are either my fault or the fault of the fact that our copy is old and slightly worn.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for violence (thanks, wild dogs).

4 stars.

(Endnote: The island of the blue dolphins can never be the same since the day the dolphins mysteriously turned beige.)

"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick

It's not often you get jumpscared by a book, but there you are.

(Spoilers in the body of this post.)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is about a boy who lives in a railway station in Paris, from which he scrounges (i.e. steals) gears and things to try to repair a clockwork automaton in the attic, using only some detailed drawings his now-deceased dad made to guide him. He's pretty sure it's supposed to write out a secret message or a treasure map or something, if he can only get it to work.

And after some time of fixing it and meeting people, he finally |gets it to work, and... it draws random squiggles|.

Except |it's not, really|.

It's |drawing a picture|, and when you turn the page after the characters realize it, you see a charcoal-esque representation of this MAJORLY SPOILERIFFIC image.

Which immediately alters your perceptions of what the book is about, if you know the context behind it. Like I did, having osmosed it from I know not where.

The pseudo jumpscare only really works because this book has an unusual format: much of the plot is carried by the lavish, sketch-like charcoal illustrations. In fact, probably the majority of the book's space is taken up by them. This is appropriate for a book whose subject matter |early filmmaking as a storytelling medium|, and it makes the story more impactful because you sort of have to work to get it out of the wordless pictures.

(It's less of "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and more of "The Thing Hugo Cabret Found And Fixed Up," really. |Until you get to the very end and discover that in-universe, the entire book was written and drawn by an automaton Hugo Cabret built to write and draw the entire book. Presumably that's the titular invention.|)

This review is part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for some mild violence, chase scenes, and that jumpscare.

4 stars.

(Endnote: I'm not actually sure if it's pronounced "Cab-rhett" or "Cab-ray.")

"Lines of Courage" by Jennifer A. Nielsen

This is a bunch of stories that could have been their own individual smaller books, except the author decided to tangle them all together into one semi-cohesive narrative instead. A narrative which takes place during World War I, hence the trenches.

Felix (Austro-Hungarian) is a civilian with a dad in the military, who (Felix, not the dad) has to survive with his mom when things get really bad in their area of Austria-Hungary.

Kara (British) just wants to be a Red Cross nurse. 

Juliette (French) lives in an area of France that got fighting in it, gets separated from her family, and is alone in WWI now, trying to survive.

Elsa (German) doesn't really have her own arc; she just catalyzes those of several of the others.

And finally, Dimitri (Russian) has fallen victim to the problem that chronically plagued Russia's armies in both World Wars: their lack of such essential things as "weapons for your soldiers". Also, there are Communists.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A soft T for being set in WWI but not having graphic violence. It would most likely be rather difficult to make into a game, but it probably could be done. Would be an interesting one.

 

4 stars.

(Endnote: I don't always read historical fiction, but when I do, it's usually because I make somewhat of an exception for WWI and WWII. And Westerns.)

Mini-Reviews 4: Never and Forever

The title is because the first three books in Cressida Crowell's Wizards of Once series all have ordinal-number-themed names (Wizards of Once, Twice Magic, and Knock Three Times) but the fourth one is called Never and Forever, which broke the chain. So when it came time to do the fourth mini-review collection, I named it this. There. Now you know.

 

Dead in the Water by Chris Lynch

This do be historical fiction, about a crewman on the U.S.S. Yorktown during World War II. We all know how well that ended. This dude |does survive, though|. 

The historical stuff is interspersed with baseball (because this was the 1940s and if you were in the States then everything was tangentially related to baseball) (please note that the previous statement is not entirely factually accurate) and a minor dealing-with-racism side plot (courtesy of the main character's friend, who gets hit with it a lot). (Also this paragraph is full of parentheses.)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence and discussion of racism. Dead in the Water would make a reasonably good videogame in the right hands, although unless you let players change the story, it wouldn't have much replayability.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, airplanes, historical fiction, military, rated T, WWII

 

 

 

All Summer Long by Hope Larson

I didn't like this one. The art wasn't really good (for me, art quality is an important factor in how much I like a graphic novel; it's like use of language in a print book), and I didn't love the storyline either. Plus it did a |casual homosexuality mention|, which I strongly dislike. If you're going to have that in your book, be overt about it so I can avoid you.

Anyway, T15+ for sexual references. 1 star. Lame.

Tags for this one: 1-star, lame, manga/graphic novel, modern setting, rated T15+, school drama

 

 

 

Truesight by David Stahler Jr.

 

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king illegal. |But also king.|

Basically, this is science fiction about a community where everyone is genetically engineered to be blind. Because... well, honestly it feels quasi-religious, like one of those weird philosophical religion-but-not-really-but-still-kinda things.

Aaaaaaaand then one guy discovers he can see, that the genetic engineering failed on him, and everything goes to pieces.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for delayed-action creepiness. It would be pretty hard to make into a videogame, but it could be done.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, dystopian, rated E10+, science fiction

(Endnote: These have three very different covers. Dead in the Water is mostly realistic, All Summer Long is only vaguely evocative of the book, and Truesight... honestly looks almost like the cover of a horror movie.)

"Countdown" by Deborah Wiles

This is a historical fiction book set in October 1962. How do I know this? Because that's when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, and the book revolves around said crisis. 

Learning the history (via the book's events and also because there were historical-tidbit interludes between chapters) was fun, but the actual plot was kind of lacking. Which is the problem with slice-of-life-esque books; they don't usually have much.

Now, not every book needs that to be good. With 65% certainty, this book was written primarily to teach kids about the 1960s, in which case: good job! If you moved it to now and replaced the Cuban Missile Crisis with some similarly stressful incident, though, the book would just be kind of lame.

What I'm trying to say is, the history and not the plot is the backbone of this book. I do like learning the history of the last century, though, and it's easier to get people to read a novel than a "History of the Cuban Missile Crisis" book (and to read one, for that matter).

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A very soft E10+. Nothing untoward, really, but realistically portraying the fear of a nuclear attack (as the book does) might be too much for younger kids. That said, it would make a pretty boring videogame.

 

This can have 3 stars, for being just OK.

 

(Endnote: Among other things, the book mentioned several Oldies that I know and like, as well as the TV show Combat!, which is my mom's favorite TV show in the history of TV shows. That was fun.)

"A Tale of Time City" by Diana Wynne Jones

Despite the title evoking A Tale of Two Cities, this book has functionally nothing to do with Dickens. Instead, it involves time travel.

How this book's time travel works is there are "Stable Eras" and "Unstable Eras." This obviates confusion about "but what if you go back in time and change history?", because history is always changing in the Unstable Eras. Those always turn out the same way, though, so the Stable Eras (where nothing messes with history) don't get messed up. It's a good way to have time travel work, in other words.

Anyway, on to the plot! Vivian Smith is a normal girl being evacuated from London during the Blitz. She's supposed to be staying with a cousin in the country, but instead she gets abducted by aliens two teenage boys from Time City. They think they're saving the city from disintegrating or something (I don't actually remember what was going to happen if the city finally wore out the patch of weird altered time it was sitting on) by getting the person who's going to mess it up out of history, but they kidnap the wrong person.

(I have a sneaking suspicion none of that made any sense.)

Then they have to pretend Vivian is supposed to be there, which she isn't, long enough that they can figure out who's screwing with history. And, ideally, stop them. Plus there's a group of four MacGuffins that keep Time City anchored to history so it doesn't go flying off to nowhere and get lost, and people keep stealing them.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for mild and indirectly described violence.

I'm giving A Tale of Time City 4 stars, one for each MacGuffin.

Favorite lines:

I actually do have... well, it's more of a favorite page, but still. Since it's so long, I've put it on my brand new Very Long Quotes Page, as quote 1. Vivian's despair over her miserable failure to translate it, and Dr. Wilander's sarcasm, are quite hilarious. I actually went back and read that page several times because it made me laugh so much.

(Endnote: The time travel in this isn't really dwelt upon, and nobody even bothers trying to explain any of it. I think that's part of the reason it doesn't invite speculation and/or plot holes as much as in other books.)

"A Very Bookish Thanksgiving" collection

This is a collection of Thanksgiving stories that are each inspired in some way by a classic book. I know it's past Thanksgiving now, but eh; I read this when it was still seasonable.

Anyway, there are five stories in here, and I'm going to give each one of them a mini-review, complete with videogame rating and star rating. I'll also stick an overall rating on the end.

(Note: My mom reviewed this a while back, so you should probably read her review first. At least, it would make mine more intelligible.)

A Promise of Acorns by Kelsey Bryant (Jane Eyre)

Not my cup of eggnog. It's about someone taking care of a curmudgeonly professor's grandchildren, and it just... didn't have enough plot for me? I don't know. I don't have any reasons to dislike it, I just don't have any reasons to like it much either.

Rating this E, though it's a bit boring for young children. 3 stars.

As Long as I Belong by Sarah Holman (Mansfield Park)

Probably my favorite, or at least tied with The Windles and the Lost Boy (see below). Theoretically, it would seem like this one would have a lot of the same problems for me that A Promise of Acorns had. I think I like the emotional-ness of this one better, if that makes sense? Like, APoA had its main character be more serious and subdued, and As Long as I Belong's main character was... not that? She seemed like she cared a lot more about things than APoA's main character did, even though the text of APoA informed us that the main character did in fact care.

This one doesn't seem like the sort of story that would appeal to me, but it did. If you told me that this one was going to be my favorite, I would have laughed at you (and been predisposed to not like it, but that's another thing entirely).

This mini-review got long. I'm rating this E again, and 4 stars. (Honestly, if I had half-stars, I'd probably give this 4.5 stars instead. But I didn't exactly like it enough to give it 5, so here we are.)

The Windles and the Lost Boy by Rebekah Jones (Peter Pan)

My other favorite. I think this one has the most exciting plot of all of them, and it's probably the only one I might have picked up if it wasn't in an anthology my mom said I might like. It's a tad bit farfetched, but then, so is Peter Pan.

Rating this E10+ for mild violence and mentions of abuse. (It'd probably get T from the ESRB as a game, though.) Also, 4 stars.

Grand Intentions by J. Grace Pennington (Great Expectations)

A young aspiring writer is invited to house-sit for her grandmother, who's going on vacation for six months. While there, the writer develops a crush, falls in with a group of (unintentional) baaaad influences, and gets some character development. I usually end up skimming parts of this one when I read this collection; nothing untoward, I just don't like reading them.

Rating this E10+ for mild alcohol use. 3 stars.

A Fine Day Tomorrow by Amanda Tero (Little Women)

The one I skip most often. It's definitely not bad, but I'm not super fond of Little Women, and I think I had the same problem with it that I had with A Promise of Acorns. It's set during the First World War, which is one of my favorite eras to learn about... but it really focuses more on the Spanish Flu pandemic, which was just grey and depressing, as I've lived through a pandemic (though I'm thankful that the COVID-19 plague was nowhere near as bad as the Spanish Flu).

Rating this E but boring. (Hey, maybe I should make that a separate category; "nothing objectionable, but small children wouldn't bother" or something?) I'm also giving it 3 stars; as I said, it wasn't bad, it just didn't appeal to me.

All right. Were this collection a collection of videogames, the whole thing would get rated: E10+ for mild alcohol use, mild violence, mentions of abuse, and... yeah, that's pretty much it.

 

Overall, I give this 4 stars. I know the average is actually 3.4 stars, but not everything has to work like math.

(Endnote: These are all Christian fiction, and they all manage to have at least some discussion of Christian faith. How well that was worked into the story--basically, how much it felt shoehorned in, if at all--varied from story to story.)

"The Cat of Bubastes" by G.A. Henty

I read this for school; it's not a book I would have picked up otherwise.

Basically, it's historical fiction about the prince of the Rebu people, whose capital gets conquered by Egypt. The main character (Amuba) and his steward are dragged off to Egypt as slaves, where they're bought by Ameres (my favorite character!), the high pries of Osiris. Ameres has a son, Chebron, who's around Amuba's age.

The titular cat doesn't show up until about halfway through the book, when it |is accidentally shot and killed by Chebron|. He |freaks out about this. So does his dad. So does the populace, when they learn about it. Someone should have made| conciliatory potato soup or something, then it would have all been fine. As I remarked to my mom, |"I'm halfway through the book. The cat just showed up and immediately died."|

The first half of the book was frankly quite boring. Later on, once the Great Central Event happened and everyone started |fleeing for their lives|, it got a lot better.

 

I do have rather a fair quibble with this, though. (Warning: some unobfuscated spoilers ahead.) In the book, it's stated that the Egyptian high priesthood knew about God, and that they constructed the Egyptian pantheon as a way of compartmentalizing His aspects so the common people could wrap their heads around it. That... struck me as implausible.

But anyway, Ameres (Chebron's dad) was my favorite character. He's one of those eminently sane adults who I like so much in fiction. Actually, pretty much all the characters here are adults.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for violence; it's not really described much, just like "yeah we shot those guys" or "if we hadn't had shields, we would have gotten stabbed".

I had a hard time deciding whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. Eventually, I decided on 3, because if I hadn't been reading 30 pages a day of this for school, I would have been bored to death by the first half or so.

(Endnote: If you couldn't tell, this thing is set in ancient Egypt.)

"Ride the River" by Louis L'Amour

Well, that was a good adventure story.

Basically, Echo Sackett (the main character) receives word that she's to inherit some money. How much money she doesn't know.

It turns out to be quite a lot of money, but the guy who's handling the inheritance wants to keep it for himself, so he keeps sending randos to try to steal it from her.

But there's this (completely awesome) old dude who is on Echo's side in all of this, so he sends his son to help her out. Adventures ensue. The rest of this post is not going to be talking about the adventures, but instead talking about the old dude, Finian Chantry. He will enter my hall of fame... when I create one.

He became a high-powered lawyer such that everyone in Philadelphia kinda respects him and is like "don't mess with that guy". He also just calmly wanders through bad neighborhoods like they're normal neighborhoods. (When some guy was like "Dude, you can't just wander into there, you're like 86!" his response was basically "Irrelevant.") Aaaaaaand... *drumroll please* he's got a sword-cane.

Also, Echo brought him along to help her with the guy who's handling the inheritance. He proceeded to go "dude, stop being a jerk already" so hard on the guy that Echo got the entire thing in about a minute.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence.

Aaaaand it gets four stars, for being a solid but not stellar book.

"Jubal Sackett" by Louis L'Amour

Finally and at long last, the reason why I've been reading and reviewing all those Louis L'Amour books. My mom said I might really like it, but being me I decided to read the previous three first. (Side note: these were not written in chronological order, but I'm reading them that way. It's like the Narnia books, except the Narnia books are better to read in publication order, whereas these aren't.)

My mom has done a more "here's what this book is about" review, so if you want one of those, go there. The book's plot is basically:

[insert character]: Imma attack you.

Jubal: no.

[insert character]: Well then imma attack [insert other character] instead.

Jubal: no.

 

[MINOR-ISH SPOILERS]

During the final fight, the Bad Dude attacks with "wide-sweeping cuts". At that point, I launched into a tirade, because that is not how you fence. Swinging your sword around dramatically is one of the first mistakes newbies always make, and it's always the first thing we have to learn not to do; against other newbies it's fine, but against someone who's skilled enough to take advantage of it, it's like an invitation to get stabbed while your sword is carried out of your opponent's way by the momentum from you swinging it around.

I was very happy when Jubal promptly took advantage of it and stabbed him. Either L'Amour knows a fair bit about fencing, it makes narrative sense, or both.

[END SPOILERS] 

Despite the existence of a couple annoying Bad Dudes, this book still gets 4 stars.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T again, mostly for Gomez (the aforementioned Bad Dude) and his dreadfulness, which might be a thing he annoys us with.

 

Didn't get any favorite lines from here.

"The Warrior's Path" by Louis L'Amour

Ayep, another L'Amour book. This one's not about Barnabas, as |he died in the last one|; it's about his son Kin instead. 

The book tells us what it's going to be about pretty much right off the bat, with some guy coming to ask Kin and his brother Yance for help. Because two young women (okay, I'm pretty sure one of them is like 10, but the other is an adult) have been abducted.

Naturally, they go on the warpath. I'm not actually sure what the titular "Warrior's Path" is supposed to be, other than a path of some sort. It's not actually much of a plot point.

Kin and Yance learn that this has happened before. Repeatedly. They figure out who's behind it (basically the bad guys are engaged in human trafficking, except we didn't have that term back when this takes place) and Kin tries to stop them, starting with the two most-recently-kidnapped girls. (I'm not sure what to call them because as I said, one of them is like 10, and the other one is an adult.)

The two kidnapped people actually manage to escape without the help of our main character or his brother; kudos to them for that. However, the Bad Guys manage to rekidnap Diana (the older one; will refer to her as Diana, as the younger one kinda disappears from the story) and abscond to Port Royal with her.

So Kin follows them. If you wanted to sum up the story in a conversation, it would go like this: 

Kin: "Stop kidnapping people."

Bad Guys: "No. Stop trying to stop us."

Kin: "No."

Kin shows up in Jamaica, where the Bad Guys promptly attempt to murder him. Repeatedly. Spoiler alert, Kin does not get murdered. Like his dad, Kin's too full of concentrated epicness for that.

Also, like my mom said, Kin and Diana get married. Not really a spoiler, as it's not hard to see that coming.

This book gets 4 stars.

 

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T again, for violence.

 

Favorite lines:

 

    "Have you ever engaged in pugilism?"

    Page 102. "Pugilism" happens to be a favorite word of mine, and having someone ask it here was just awesome.

 

    "Men enter the world to die. I merely expedite matters."

    Page 154. Said by a hired assassin who shortly fails to kill Kin.

"To the Far Blue Mountains" by Louis L'Amour

After the first book chronicled some of the life of Barnabas Sackett, this one does the rest of it. It intersperses action scenes (98% of the book, 2% of the time elapsed) with time skips (2% of the book, 98% of the time elapsed).

In this one, Barnabas falls afoul of Robert Malmayne (possibly an actual historical person, but I don't really know anything about him) who's apparently after getting the crown jewels which he thinks Barnabas has found. Barnabas hasn't found them. Robert Malmayne doesn't believe this.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Barnabas ends up in America again. And runs into Native Americans again. And has thrilling adventures again. 

(Side note: I suspect my reviews of Louis L'Amour books are all going to be quite short. Y'all've been warned. Woot, two whole apostrophes in a single word!)

 

Barnabas has an interesting habit of walking into dangerous situations and declaring himself in charge. With anyone else, this would be suicidal, but Barnabas Sackett manages to be so dang good at it that he pulls it off. Repeatedly.

 

Anyway, unlike its companion, I'm only going to rate this one three stars. This is mostly due to all the time skips and |the main character dying in the end|.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T again, mostly for violence.

Favorite lines:

    "Come in, gentlemen!" I said. "But please, no quick movements as I've no wish to be cleaning scattered brains from the wall."

    Page 43. Once again, L'Amour's characters (another two-apostrophe word for ya) deliver threats in the most hilariously casual manner.

    "...I took [the child] carefully, for I'd no knowledge of babies."

    Page 212. "I'd no knowledge of babies" struck me as absolutely hilarious when I read the line. It still amuses me while I'm writing this blurb thing.

(Endnote: Barnabas has a great moustache, doesn't he? Also, my mom reviewed this one too.)

"Sackett's Land" by Louis L'Amour

Behold, a book different from pretty much everything I've previously reviewed here. 

The book is about one Barnabas Sackett, who tries to go on a trading venture to the New World. Then |he gets shanghaied| (to America, so that worked out) and has all sorts of adventures. Rollicking good fun, to quote... my mom, probably.

Also, unlike most other adventure story I've read, Barnabas does not really have an "incompetent-to-good-at-things" character arc. About which I am very happy, because said character arc is not my favorite of these. From descriptions I've read of Louis L'Amour books, they seem to mostly be about competent characters, so, woot! 

 

I'll give this thing four stars.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T, probably. Unlike most of the books I've reviewed here so far, Sackett's Land would probably be quite a fun videogame in the vein of something like Tomb Raider or Metal Gear. 

Favorite lines:

    I parried a blade, thrust, stepped back and with a toe kicked a block in the way of my opponent who spilled over it to hands and knees. If he came up from that--I flicked my blade sideways and down in a quick gesture--up from that he'd have to fasten his head on again.

    Page 141.

    (That is the absolute funniest way I've ever read of saying "yeah, I cut that guy's head off.)

EDIT: I forgot to mention this, but my mom read and reviewed this too.

"Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon" by Torben Kuhlmann

This is an extremely adorable book. I picked it up off the library shelves because it caught my eye and was about mice. In space. Mice in space. Pretty sure you can see why I like it. (I'm not going to bother with spoiler tags for the plot because you can read the whole thing in like 5 minutes; thou hast been warned.)

It's basically a retelling of the moon landings, but with a mouse instead. The titular mouse discovers, via telescope, that the moon is a giant ball of... stone. Nobody believes him, because obviously cheese is round and has holes, and obviously the moon is round and has holes, ergo the moon is made of cheese. 

But then, one mouse (who lives in the Smithsonian) believes him, and that sets our mouse hero on the path of FLYING TO THE MOON IN A TINY SPACESHIP!!! But first, he tries to fly to the moon in a converted alarm clock launched from a catapult... which, obviously, doesn't work. 

...aaand then he actually lands on the moon, and here I pull a bait-and-switch and talk about physics within a spoiler tag. 

|Obviously, a mouse going to the moon in a rocket made of tin cans isn't going to work. But you have to suspend disbelief, because come on, cute mouse. It's a picture book. Enough physics.|

And now, a public service announcement, from my country cousin. THIS BOOK IS EXTREMELY CUTE!! I could say this at least eight more times and not get tired of it, so without further ado, THIS BOOK IS EXTREMELY CUTE!!! THIS BOOK IS EXTREMELY CUTE! [remainder truncated for brevity]

This book will join my other two recent reviews, Howl's Moving Castle and Fahrenheit 451, in getting four stars. 

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. (It would be rated EC, for Early Childhood, but I looked up the ratings and apparently EC has been retired due to infrequency of use.) I found it in the picture books section, y'all.

Favorite lines:

   "Next stop, the moon!" he announced in a loud and cheerful voice, although there was no one to hear him.

   (The book doesn't have any page numbers, which is my main quibble with it.)

Also, the extremely cute artwork, because as previously stated, THIS BOOK IS EXTREMELY CUTE!!!!!! [remainder truncated for brevity again]

"Time Cat" by Lloyd Alexander

 First: disclaimer. I HATED THIS BOOK. Actually, I liked it fairly well up until the ending. But the ending ABSOLUTELY STANK. Also, I'm going to majorly spoil it, so don't read any further if you don't want that.

 

 

Now that we've got that out of our way, let's begin. The story starts when our main character, Jason, finds out his cat can talk. The premise of the book is that cats don't necessarily have nine lives, but they can visit nine lives. Accordingly, the book is divided into nine sections of two chapters each (except one, which has three chapters). Oh, and the cat is named Gareth. Who names their cat Gareth???

And then Jason and Gareth go on a rollicking adventure! Actually, they go on NINE rollicking adventures. I don't have much to say about any of them, really. They go to all sorts of places and times and do random stuff.

AND NOW, for the ending:

It was all a dream.

My first reaction upon reading that was "AaAAAaAARGH". "It was all a dream" is quite possibly my least favorite story ending ever. EVER. 

If this was a movie, I don't know how I would rate it. Probably PG.

And what rating did you think this book would get? Quite obviously, given the tone of the rest of my review, it's getting one star. This is what books get for having my least favorite ending in the history of bad book endings. (There are a few books who have managed to redeem themselves despite having "it was all a dream" as their ending, but not many in my eyes.)

Favorite lines: none. No really memorable lines.

"The Curse of Ravenscourt" by Sarah Masters Buckley

This book is a mystery. Specifically, it's a Samantha mystery, which means it's an American Girl mystery in the Samantha series (set in 1904). This factors into the plot in a lot of ways, some of which are very annoying. Very annoying indeed. (One of which is also that Samantha is the main character.)

And on that cheery note, let's get into the story itself. It starts when Samantha's family has to temporarily move into a giant apartment building/hotel/thingy. (The back of the book calls it an "apartment-hotel".) Which is called... can you guess? Ravenscourt! And because it's called Ravenscourt, and the name of the book is The Curse of Ravenscourt, said court of ravens must be cursed.

 

Couple with that, if you please, the fact that Samantha's adopted sister Nellie is initially apprehensive of the giant carved ravens all over Ravenscourt (interesting sense of decor, but I can't really blame them), and you have the start to what is quite an interesting book. 

 

And then weird stuff starts happening, some of which is actually fairly creepy. Someone or something paints a red "13" on the elevator's level plaque, and then other stuff ensues. The "13" is talked up to make it sound somewhat like it's painted in blood, which makes it creepier than if someone had just remarked something like "someone painted a red 13 on the wall, oh dear let's wash it off". 

 

I have a weird tangent for you all, by the way. How would you pronounce the name "Winthrop"? I'd always read it "Win-thrawp" in my head before, but when Daddy was reading it out loud he said "Win-thrope". Which, if either, would you say?

 

I didn't like the ending much. I mean, the curse is cool and all, but... with regards to the curse, what conclusions can be drawn from the fact that it's from American Girl? Nothing remotely magical or supernatural is going to be in an American Girl book. The ending is why I gave it the rating I did.

 

If this was a movie, I would rate it PG--there is some fairly creepy stuff in it, honestly. 

 

This book, like Everything on a Waffle, gets a rating of three stars. As I said before, I didn't like the ending. There really aren't any other reasons why I didn't like it, just the ending. It was kind of meh overall.

 

Favorite Lines:

    Samantha thought that servants might like sunlight as much as anyone else would, but she said nothing.
    Page 22.

(for background, this is Jenny, another of Samantha's adopted sisters, talking on a telephone)
    "Hello?" said Jenny, trying to talk into the earpiece.
    Page 87.