A few things about the story undermined my enjoyment of it. One, it got off to a slow start, and it took the first third of the story for me to feel fully engaged with the plot. Two, the chapters are exceedingly long. Believe it or not, this is a big deal to me, and it actually means that it takes me longer to read the book than it might if the chapters were shorter. (I’ll take a look at a chapter when I finally retire for the night and decide it’s not worth even starting it if it’s too long.) Another thing is Milo’s and Meddy’s taking of alternate names and personas through a retro role-playing game (?) that Meddy suggests to Milo early in the story. It took me a long time to even remember what the various roles were, and I mostly feel like this is an unnecessary distraction to the mystery. I prefer my mysteries to be pretty straightforward and without other sorts of plot complications. It turns out, too, that this story fits into the speculative fiction genre (and was nominated for a 2014 Cybils in that category for elementary/middle graders). This move into the speculative fiction genre happens by way of a plot twist that comes late in the story, but it still seems a little too deus ex machina or something to me. With all of those caveats, I did enjoy this story. It’s a rather sophisticated tale, though at times it seemed a little cumbersome and creaky. It is a slow moving, instrospective sort of story, but it would be a worthwhile read for the right reader. (Clarion, 2014)
Side note: I wondered when I first started the novel if the main character’s name, Milo, had any link to Milo from The Phantom Tollbooth. I didn’t discern any noticable connections through my reading, though I was gratified to note that Elizabeth Bird also noticed the name. And then, lo and behold, I was checking out Kate Milford’s blog when I happened upon this post. Hmmmm. . . 🙂
