The Strangers

Chess (short for Rochester), Emma, and Finn return from school one day expecting the usual warm reception from their mom. But she's in a daze, watching a news story about a recent kidnapping several states over. The missing kids are siblings named Rocky (short for Rochester), Emma, and Finn. What are the odds? Literally, math-minded Emma would like to know. Suffice it to say, things only get weirder from there.This was a pretty fun read, although I feel some resignation every time an eerie premise is explained away by parallel universes (or worse, time travel). I like the cover, but it's almost a spoiler. I do like that the main characters occupy a world other than their own without knowing it. Also, I get that this might be a tired trope for me, but for the age group this is written for, it could be novel (pun intended, I'm proud of that one). I'm probably just old and jaded. What else is new? The characters are interesting enough if not very dimensional, and it's always nice to read kid lit where siblings don't hate each other.I'd recommend to fans of [b:Small Spaces 36959639 Small Spaces (Small Spaces, #1) Katherine Arden https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1539180297l/36959639.SY75.jpg 56656020], [b:When You Reach Me 5310515 When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441759322l/5310515.SY75.jpg 6608018], and maybe [b:The Series of Unfortunate Events 78411 The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1) Lemony Snicket https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490085391l/78411.SX50.jpg 1069597].