Jessica

This is young adult urban fantasy. It is set in a magical London. Sound familiar? It should, this has been done many times. What makes this worth the read is Pollack's ability to be so descriptive that it creeps you out. Like a lot of other reviewers the voice stealing, telephone wire walking spiders will stick with me for a while. So will the mirror dwellers. This city literally is alive.

For fans of Gaiman.

I really wanted to just love this book from the minute I opened the box it was shipped in. I really hate writing a review that is not positive. I want say negative because there were some good times.

Hidden lands accessed through a keyhole in a curio cabinet, porcelain figures that are really alive, and a strong girl with the opportunity and means to save the world from a controlling power that isn't ideal in any way. What's not to like?

The way the story is written is confusing at times. It seems that the author has a knack for writing a sentence that doesn't make sense until you read the following sentence. A sentence would be referring to a certain character, but i wouldn't know who that character was until their name was finally provided in a later part of the scene. I have seen this technique work in books with very strong character developement, sadly this book does not have that. If this were fixed, I would increase the rating by an entire star. To top that off the world building was nonexistent.

There were parts of this where the writing was great. The grammar was fine, and no major editing flaws stood out. This author can write, but this feels Iike a story that had not gone through the entire process of being polished and perfected. With a rewrite, or two, I would give this another shot because the description is very appealing.

I won a copy of this on Goodreads. I wasn't going to review this, but I was constantly being reminded to do so through my email box.

I love these books. They are packed with so much information. My son brought this home from the school library today. We read it together, but he is still examining the pictures and cool facts.

I read this with my 12 year old for his summer reading project. Some of the best time we have had in a while.

This book aged well. Being that it is set in the outdoors with an absence of modern, and not so modern technology makes enjoyable and relatable to today's youth.

I recommend this for boys and girls both ages 10 and up. Adults will enjoy this as well. Anyone interested in a book about coming of age surviving in the wild, or just an engaging story.

This was not as good as the previous books.