Ollie hasn’t been much of a people-person, but since her mother died the only solace she can seem to find is in books. On a bike ride home from school, she comes across a woman sobbing by the lake, trying to talk herself into throwing an old black book into the water. On a whim, Ollie steals the book and discovers within its pages a strange and spooky old story about the Webster family and their tragedy brought on by a sinister “smiling man.” The […]
Here There Be Giant Catfish Monsters
When Mr. Baker takes his sixth grade class to the Carslbad Caverns for their end of year field-trip, he assures them they’ll find awe and adventure. Turns out they find a little too much of both. Wandering the cavern’s depths, they get caught in an earthquake that sends them deeper underground and the students find themselves split up, teacherless, and lost in the middle of the earth. As they try to find their way back, they will encounter unrecognizable wildlife, conquer their own fears, and […]
If you read the first book, don’t read this book. Imagine your own ending. #CBRBingo
No question, this is the weakest book in this series by quite a large margin. Before I read it, I saw the sharp drop in the ratings for it, and I almost couldn’t believe it. The first two books were solid, what could possibly be so bad about this one? Well. Those ratings make sense now, because this book was aggressively incompetent. What were cute and comforting levels of predictability in the first two books became clichéd and eyeroll-worthy in this one. The problem, I […]
Not as good as the first, but still fun.
This wasn’t as purely fun as the first one, but it was almost as predictable, hence my 3.5 star rating, instead of the full four (rounding up, though, because not as fun is still fun). Spoilers for the first book below. Seriously, don’t read any further if you haven’t read it. I’m about to spoil a central plot point. The Runaway King picks up a month after the close of the last book, with Jaron having taken the throne and left his false identity as […]