Tag: 3 stars

A Unicorn Named Sparkle #3: A Unicorn Named Sparkle’s First Christmas – Amy Young

I adored A Unicorn Named Sparkle and A New Friend for Sparkle so despite my Bah Humbug tendencies I was excited to read about Sparkle’s first Christmas. I loved the illustrations and the shiny, glittery bits on the cover. I enjoyed seeing Sparkle lapping up his hot chocolate, playing with the birds and ice skating, and I grinned every time an illustration showed the heart shaped marking on his butt.

I was really disappointed by the story though. While I love giving and receiving presents, Lucy’s obsession with presents in this book

and her tantrum made me feel really sorry for poor Sparkle, who she makes cry a puddle of rainbow tears when she declares he’s ruined Christmas. I wish the story had a greater focus on their friendship and the joy they bring to one another rather than shining a spotlight on Lucy’s bad attitude. Yes, Lucy does turn it around in the end but it felt like it was too little, too late and it didn’t undo my desire to give Sparkle a huge hug and adopt him.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s Sparkle’s first Christmas and Lucy is showing him how to celebrate. Make a snowman. Check. Make a unicorn snowman. Check. Hang stockings, make cookies, and, of course – buy presents! (But don’t eat them.) Check. In pure Sparkle fashion, nothing goes as planned, but Lucy ends up learning that love – not presents – is what Christmas is all about.

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For Better and Worse – Margot Hunt

I’m sure that practically every parent who learns their child has been molested engages in some fairly imaginative revenge fantasies. For Natalie and Will, whose first date included a discussion about how they could commit the perfect murder together, fantasy has become reality. Are they smart enough to get away with it?

My answer, from the planning through to the execution and beyond, was a resounding “Hell, no!” Between them this couple made so many obvious mistakes I felt it was inevitable they’d be caught. While some of their failures were mentioned there were others that seemed obvious to me but were never brought up.

If the characters had no background in anything vaguely related to crime then I could have easily overlooked some of their missteps and chalked them up to their emotional state after learning of their child’s molestation but they both went to law school and one of them works as a criminal defense attorney! I kept wanting to tell them to binge watch some Criminal Minds, Rizzoli & Isles or any of the CSI or Law and Order franchises. There are so many to choose from and a few episodes of any one of them would have helped prevent some of the face palm moments of this book.

I had expected that a book with such emotionally charged subject matter would be a difficult read but I actually didn’t feel much while reading. I didn’t find anything to like about either of the main characters. If I had connected to them at all I think this would have helped me care if their crime was discovered or not. It turned out that when I started writing my review immediately after finishing the last page I had to double check what their names were. I don’t remember the last time that happened.

Whoever wrote the blurb gave away too much of the story so I wound up spending the first half of the book waiting for something to happen that I didn’t already know. I found most of the sequence of events predictable and one part I didn’t predict simply annoyed me. I definitely liked the premise of this book and had high hopes for it. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me.

Don’t just take my word for it though. There are plenty of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews so I’d encourage you to check out some of those before deciding if this is the book for you or not.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin – MIRA for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

On their first date back in law school, Natalie and Will Clarke bonded over drinks, dinner and whether they could get away with murder. Now married, they’ll put the latter to the test when an unchecked danger in their community places their son in jeopardy. Working as a criminal defense attorney, Nat refuses to rely on the broken legal system to keep her family safe. She knows that if you want justice … you have to get it yourself.

Shocked to discover Nat’s taken matters into her own hands, Will has no choice but to dirty his, also. His family is in way too deep to back down now. He’s just not sure he recognises the woman he married. Nat’s always been fiercely protective, but never this ruthless or calculating. With the police poking holes in their airtight plan, what will be the first to fall apart: their scandalous secret – or their marriage?

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What You Hide – Natalie D. Richards

When I read the blurb for this book I was drawn by the idea of someone fulfilling one of my dreams: living in a library. Imagine all of the uninterrupted reading time at night when everyone else goes home and you’re surrounded by shelves and shelves of books and the smell of books and the ambience of a library. Ah, heaven!

Now imagine the creepy factor of a dead body found in the library and subsequent mysterious footprints, noises in the middle of the night and messages written on the walls. Sounds like the making of a fun horror book, huh?!

Had the blurb I read even whispered the word ‘romantic’ I would have run a mile and so I was suitably horrified when I discovered an extended blurb on Goodreads cheerfully telling me I was reading a ‘romantic thriller’. Had this been a library book I would have stopped reading immediately but as I’d promised to review this book I grimaced and turned the page.

Given my romantiphobe tendencies I probably should have hated this book but I didn’t. It was never going to be something I would love and gush over, and I wish I’d known that before I started reading, but in between the budding romance and the frustration with some of the characters there were some sections that I enjoyed and found relatable.

Mallory’s home situation made me want to reach through the pages and strangle someone. Her once vibrant mother is now essentially a puppet on a string for controlling, emotionally abusive [insert swear word of your choice here] Charlie. I found the conversations between Mallory and her mother infuriatingly accurate given the circumstances and their personalities. I had hoped for a fairytale ending to that situation but unfortunately real life doesn’t guarantee those so it was probably too much to hope for.

The idea that someone who’s recently homeless and simultaneously trying to find food, shelter and any semblance of safety has time to agonise over a crush on a boy or to go indoor rock climbing with said boy just didn’t seem feasible to me. I’m fairly certain Maslow would agree.

He reaches for me slowly, and I’m powerless. Hypnotized by the graze of his fingers against the side of my thumb.

Spencer, while suitably adorable, spent his time wanting more from his life than living in a mansion with the loving family who adopted him and feeling guilty for wanting more, especially considering Mallory has “real” problems. I have trouble mustering up sympathy for a rich kid with supportive parents who’s scared of telling them that what is expected of him isn’t what he wants and any sympathy I had for him faded when he took out his frustration by starting a fight with some jerk at ice hockey practice.

I would have loved for his adoption to play more of a role in the book but it wasn’t the focus. Similarly the discussion surrounding addiction, while obviously sad, was pretty much glossed over.

Mallory and Spencer aren’t the meddling kids I’d hope they’d be; when I wanted them to investigate strange footsteps in the otherwise empty library they hid out in the bathroom. They finally do investigate but much later than I would have. The dead body in the library and the mystery of the ‘ghost’ were fairly tame and repetitive from my perspective. It was basically footprint, footprint, message on the wall, message on the wall, cool creative message, another footprint, and a few other signs finally leading to a resolution that seemed obvious from early on.

If you like sweet romances between people from disparate walks of life this could be the book for you. If you’re looking for creepy with potential for horror and ghosts then this is probably not the book you’re looking for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Spencer volunteers at the library. Sure, it’s community service, but he likes his work. Especially if it means getting to see Mallory.

Mallory spends a lot of time keeping her head down. When you’re sixteen and homeless, nothing matters more than being anonymous. But Spencer’s charm makes her want to be noticed.

Then sinister things start happening at the library. Mysterious symbols and terrifying warnings begin to appear, and management grows suspicious. Spencer and Mallory know a homeless teenager makes an easy target, and if they can’t find the real culprit soon, they could lose more than just their safe haven …

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A Dreadful Fairy Book – Jon Etter

A place with books and people who read them – that’s where I need to be.

Shade is a sprite who doesn’t fit in. Her home in Pleasant Hollow is a constant reminder of the bullying she endured when she was younger for being different and all that she has lost: her mother who went to fight in a war and never returned, and her father who died. Now her home and more importantly her precious 74 books have been lost to a fire after some “grub-sucking, slime-licking mudbrains” set off fireworks in the middle of the forest.

Shade is “dingle-dangle” furious and storms off (she doesn’t like flying) into the Merry Forest, after making sure she tells the other sprites to “Get donkled!” I don’t mind fake swearing generally because it’s usually humourous but, with the spite that came with a lot of the swearing in this book, the chuckles weren’t there for me.

Shade has never ventured outside of her village before so she isn’t quite sure where she’s going but, armed with the knowledge she’s gained by reading and fuelled by rage and determination, she begins a quest to find more books; hopefully enough to last her a lifetime.

Books that we love truly are our friends, always there to comfort us in times of trouble, revel with us in times of joy, and inspire countless acts of kindness, nobility, and goodwill every day of our lives.

It’s difficult to believe that a character who spends the entire book on the hunt for a library could be as obnoxious and surly as Shade, the main character. Although there are glimpses of something softer beneath the surface (deep, deep down), Shade is mostly acerbic and downright rude to practically everyone who is unfortunate enough to cross her path. Even those who help her along the way are not immune to her venom.

Because the narrator overslept they wound up stuck narrating this story and all they do is whinge about it; what a terrible story this is, how you should skip to the end of the chapter, blah blah blah. If you enjoy reading commentary from someone who consistently tells you how “dreadful” what you’re reading is you may like the narrator. I absolutely hated the narrator and wish that they’d kept sleeping so they never made it into this story at all.

Each time the narrator intruded on the story I wanted to stop reading altogether and almost gave up entirely several times. Rather than adding any depth or another point of view to the story I felt they detracted from it. I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if the narrator’s lines magically disappeared. Every so often they’d add something that didn’t make me want to slap them, but it was rare.

And we all know, no matter how many books we come to read and love in life, how special that first beloved book is, don’t we, my friend?

My favourite characters were Chauncey the Gentletroll (it made my blood boil when he was called a “ponce”) and the Professor, who was blissfully silent for the majority of the book. I really enjoyed discovering how the card catalogue in the library worked; it was imaginative, magical and I need this system for my own personal library. I would also like to visit some of Chauncey’s uncle’s vacations.

My moral of the story: A bookworm without books is pretty insufferable. Make sure books are always available to them and you’ll be okay.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amberjack Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Readers, beware: what you hold in your hands is a dreadful fairy book. 

I wish I were narrating almost any other fairy story, but alas, this is my lot. Whatever expectations you have of delightful and whimsical fairies are sure to be disappointed. There are certainly fairies, but most are not proper fairies. Some who are supposed to be nasty are disappointingly nice, while some who should be kind and helpful are disconcertingly surly, dishonest, and generally unpleasant company. 

Our heroine is, perhaps, the worst offender – a sprite more interested in books than carefree games, who insists on being called Shade even though she has the perfectly lovely fairy name of Lillyshadow Glitterdemalion. She is on a quest, albeit with rather questionable companions, to find a place she can call home. A place of companionship, comfort, and, most importantly, positively filled with books.

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33 1/3 #135: Tori Amos’ Boys for Pele – Amy Gentry

Although I was really looking forward to reading about Tori’s Boys for Pele (I’ve been sort of obsessed for 24 years with all things Tori) I found myself glazing over whenever the discussion moved into a discourse about the nature of disgust or how the concept of taste can be, I don’t know, something about Kant and aesthetic philosophy. I blame myself; I saw Tori on the cover and neglected to read the blurb where it warned me that this book was a “blend of memoir, criticism, and aesthetic theory”.

Sure, I understood where the author was coming from when she explored disgust; the image of Tori suckling a piglet in the album artwork did elicit a WTF response from me when I first saw it in 1996. Perhaps you need to be smarter than I am to fully appreciate the connections between Tori’s music and the philosophical and sociological treatises mentioned in this book but it came across to me as kinda pretentious (sorry!).

In the end, Bourdieu’s sociological lens merely neglects what Kant purposely excludes: the body’s role in aesthetic experience.

I know a lot of people call Tori ‘pretentious’ as well but I just wanted to hear about her songs. I already knew the early Tori biography and had read a lot of the articles referenced. I also didn’t want to keep hearing about Wilson’s book about Céline Dion. I’ve got nothing against Céline (I quite enjoyed her Deadpool 2 music video) but I was here to read about Tori.

While it wasn’t what I was hoping for this book is definitely thoroughly researched and well written, and I expect a lot of Toriphiles will love it. The sections that actually deconstructed Tori’s songs were interesting and I did learn some new (to me) meanings behind lyrics and background information about the media’s portrayal of her. There were several passages I had to highlight including:

Process and product are never far apart in Amos’s music, which is, I suspect, one reason why her answers to questions about what the songs mean can often sound like additional lyrics rather than explanations. For Amos, it seems, to sing and play is to think through a complicated problem out loud, and that thinking is never really finished. Neither is the song; neither, perhaps, is the woman.

I was very disappointed that, in a book about a specific album, some of its songs were barely mentioned, including some of my favourites. In particular, Putting the Damage On is mentioned in passing twice and Talula is only mentioned once! Songs that aren’t even on this album were given more air time.

This series has been on my radar for a number of years and I expected that after reading about Pele I’d be bingeing the rest but it turns out they’re not for me and I’m really bummed about that. I usually have to buy any book written by or about Tori so this is a first for me.

Word of the Book: Abject. Abject and abjection are used a combined 47 times, although it felt closer to 100.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s hard to think of a solo female recording artist who has been as revered or as reviled over the course of her career as Tori Amos. Amy Gentry argues that these violent aesthetic responses to Amos’s performance, both positive and negative, are organized around disgust – the disgust that women are taught to feel, not only for their own bodies, but for their taste in music.

Released in 1996, Amos’s third album, Boys for Pele, represents the height of Amos’s willingness to explore the ugly qualities that make all of her music, even her more conventionally beautiful albums, so uncomfortably, and so wonderfully, strange. Using a blend of memoir, criticism, and aesthetic theory, Gentry argues that the aesthetics of disgust are useful for thinking in a broader way about women’s experience of all art forms.

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ABC What Can She Be? – Sugar Snap Studio

Illustrations – Jessie Ford

This colourful board book goes through an alphabet of work options available for girls when they grow up. I really appreciated the diversity in this book, in the jobs explored and the girls pictured. The jobs traverse traditional male and female jobs, from pilots and teachers to yoga instructors and quantum physicists.

Because girls from around the world are represented, young girls looking through this book should be able to identify personally with at least one girl. There are girls with blonde hair, red hair and dark hair. One girl is wearing a hijab. Another is in a wheelchair. Girls are wearing dresses, skirts, pants and uniforms.

I would have liked P to be for president but the end of the book does specify that the jobs mentioned are only some of the options so I’d be adding that one if I read this to a young girl.

O is for Optometrist. She checks our eyes to make sure we see clearly.

Because this is a board book I had hoped it would be told in rhyme and was disappointed that it wasn’t. It was written in a down to earth way that makes the different jobs easy to understand but I found it a bit too matter of fact. This is the type of book I expect people would buy for a baby shower but I couldn’t imagine myself wanting to read it over and over.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster Jr. for granting my wish to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

ABC What Can She Be? explores 26 different career paths. Each page introduces a letter of the alphabet with bright artwork and highlights a career that is fun, challenging, and makes a big impact in its own way.

A boldly illustrated, fun family read, ABC What Can She Be? is a great way for parents to introduce their small children to the bright futures before them.

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Carnival of Fear – J.G. Faherty

I was looking forward to a fun B grade horror experience with this book and that’s mostly what I got. It’s almost Halloween and ‘Carnival of Fear’ is in town for one night only. Advertisements promise

“Terror! Blood! Mayhem! Monsters, Ghouls, and Murderers! Experience the agony of the damned!”

and

“The World’s Most Terrifying Haunted Mansion! Enter At Your Own Risk!”

They’re not lying!

Several groups of high school students are amongst those who are inside the Castle of Horrors at midnight when hell begins to literally break loose on the town of Whitebridge.

“It’s not like a regular haunted house. There’s only one exit, and you can’t get out until you go through all the rooms. You can do them in any order you want, except for the last one. That’s where the exit is.”

The characters are so clichéd that they’re essentially caricatures. You’ve got the jocks, the cheerleader, the nerds and the goody two shoes. I eagerly anticipated a lot of the characters’ death scenes from our first meeting, particularly those who spouted derogatory homophobic, racist, ableist, misogynist word vomit. I was also keen for the date rapist to be dispatched with the ample blood spatter he deserved.

I had planned on keeping track of all the deaths in the book in order to provide a body count in my review. There were so many that I decided to make up rules about which deaths could be included. They had to happen on page, so no dead bodies that were stumbled upon once they’d already started cooling, and I had to know their name for them to count. Before I made it a third of the way through the book I had already reached double digits so I decided to abandon my tally and just sit back and enjoy the bloodbath instead.

I grinned as B grade horror glory unfolded in front of me. There were some really entertaining over the top deaths. I witnessed a Jason Voorhees/Leatherface mashup, scenes from Alien and every alien invasion movie ever made, witch trials, Frankenstein at work, werewolves and zombies. I was really enjoying being ringside but then, just before 70%, I almost stopped reading. I’m all for slasher bloodshed. I’ll happily cheer on decapitations, limbs getting twisted off bodies, disembowelments and impalements, especially when they happen to a character I love to hate. It’s all part of the fun of B grade horror.

However, the story stopped being fun the moment the vampires started raping at whim. Both male and female characters experienced this, with some rapes happening in full view of the rest of the characters. I hesitated in the beginning when one of the main characters was described as a date rapist but tried to ignore this and simply looked forward to their demise. The story lost me at the first gratuitous sexual assault and while I continued reading until the end, I never got the fun back.

This may not impact on the enjoyment of the story for other readers but personally I felt the topic wasn’t dealt with sensitively at all and didn’t belong in the book in the first place. Its inclusion transformed Carnival of Fear from a fun Halloween read into something I would no longer recommend, which is a shame because the rest of the book was entertaining. Without those scenes I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy B grade horror.

I may have missed something but it seemed like the castle rules changed after midnight. Early on we find out that in order to enter the final room you have to have already completed every other room. There isn’t a single character who enters every room after midnight, yet once at least someone has survived each room those who are left are all allowed to enter the final room.

This book would benefit from a proofreader and some further editing. Some of the writing was fairly crude and there are quite a few typos that hadn’t been corrected in the 2015 version I read. For example, ‘lightning’ is spelt correctly twice. I found it spelt ‘lighting’ once and ‘lightening’ four times. Some repetition also stood out, including “like a shark eats a seal” in chapter 8 and “Like sharks attacking a seal” in chapter 18.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The Halloween carnival seemed like the perfect way to spend a Friday night, but when a group of teenagers find themselves trapped in the haunted mansion, they learn the awful truth about the carnival, and the demons that run it. Now they’re trapped, fighting their way through a maze of torturous attractions where vampires, werewolves, aliens, and other monsters come to life, eager for human blood. As the body count rises, friendships are made and lost, and unlikely heroes emerge. The final showdown takes place in Hell, where the ultimate battle between good and evil will determine their fate. The Carnival of Fear – the price of admission is your soul!

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The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Dinosaur Hunter – Tim Collins

Illustrations – Sarah Horne

I blame myself for needing wanting to read every book with ‘dinosaur’ in the title. Not being familiar with this series it took me a little while to realise that our main character Ann lived in the 1800’s. It took me until the end of the book to find out that it’s set in 1870. Ann’s story is told in diary form and is inspired by the life of Mary Anning who, along with her brother, found the first complete Ichthyosaur skeleton in 1811.

Ann finds fish lizard bones and her father, who’s essentially a snake oil salesman, sells them to tourists as a “cure” for whatever he deems wrong with them. His scams and tactless sales pitch tends to get him into trouble and Ann appears to take on somewhat of a parental role, trying to keep him out of trouble and entertained.

One day a surgeon who collects fossils encounters her father’s stall, realises the scientific importance of her discovery and after some setbacks Ann and her father wind up visiting the New World (America) on an expedition to hunt dinosaurs. Despite the old men at the Geological Society dismissing her due to her age and gender Ann is determined to become a great scientist.

I never really connected with Ann’s character although the story did grow on me over time. I found the writing to be very matter of fact and mostly a series of “I did this”, “I went there” and “That happened”. Ann’s continual references to believing she was cursed each time something went wrong irritated me after a while. Perhaps it just wasn’t my type of humour but there was only one part that I found smirk worthy and based on the blurb I’d expected ‘hilarity’.

I still don’t know how Ann qualifies as the “World’s Worst Dinosaur Hunter” as she seemed pretty great at it, so much so that even though she is uneducated, unqualified and a girl (shock, horror!) she is the first to discover several dinosaur species.

I did like the ‘Get Real’ facts scattered throughout the book, my favourite of which involved William Buckland who “attempted to eat his way through the entire animal kingdom, and is known to have served his guests mice on toast and roasted hedgehog.” Ew!!

The sections at the end of the book where I learned about Mary Anning’s life and some other notable dinosaur hunters were interesting. Also included are a timeline and glossary.

Thank you to NetGalley and Jolly Fish Press, an imprint of North Star Editions, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Meet Ann – a smart but unlucky teenager keeping a diary of her life as she hunts for dinosaur bones. When she gets an opportunity to search for fossils in the American West, Ann is determined to turn her luck around and show the world her discoveries.

The hilarious Long-Lost Secret Diary series put readers inside the heads of unlucky people in unfortunate situations. The accessible, irreverent stories will keep young readers laughing as they learn the importance of not being afraid to learn from one’s mistakes. Get Real fact boxes featured throughout, as well as a glossary and additional back matter, provide historical context and background.

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Scream Site – Justina Ireland

Scream Site reminded me a little of the Point Horror books I loved as a kid, only with more introspection and fewer scares. I adored the front cover art and the blurb made it sound as though danger would be lurking around every corner.

While it was an okay read it felt like it was a victim of its own marketing in a way. It’s marketed (depending on where you look) towards readers between 12 and 15 years or 12 and 18 years. I think 12 would be towards the higher end of the age group that would enjoy this book most.

I can trace a lot of the problems I had with this book back to its blurb. We’re told very clearly that Faith, Sabrina’s sister, goes missing so I assumed this would happen fairly early in the story and then we’d spend the rest of the book chasing down clues to try to save her before its too late.

As a result of this (wrong) assumption each time I read Faith’s name I was looking for clues and getting ready to learn of her disappearance and potential demise. Then I got bored waiting for the inevitable. By the time it finally happens I was already 85% of the way through the book and I don’t think I’ll be so happy to learn that someone may have been kidnapped ever again.

It’s difficult to know what spoiler territory looks like in a book whose blurb is possibly the biggest spoiler of all so let’s just say there are potential spoilers in my review. Consider yourself warned.

Sabrina is a 14 year old wannabe investigative journalist. She like super wants to apply for a summer internship at a newspaper. If that last sentence annoyed you then this is probably not the book for you. People are “super busy”, things are “super creepy” or “super weird”, and “it was super illegal”. “He, like, volunteers” and is “like the nicest guy in the entire school”.

Why does our main character, who loves documentaries and romantic comedies, decide to investigate a website hosted by horror movie makers? Because she hasn’t come up with a good lead for her internship application and her best (and possibly only) friend thinks it’s a good idea. After watching one video and suitably freaking herself out Sabrina decides there’s more to the story and continues her own personal scare fest for the rest of the book.

Sabrina scares herself when the lights suddenly go out in her home a couple of times but as it’s already established early on that this happens all the time I never expected any jump scares to come as a result of rooms plunging into darkness.

Besides the too much information blurb I found myself questioning too many elements to really enjoy much of the read.

With her sister missing and this website being pretty much her only clue I doubt that Lupe would have handed over her sister’s login information to a 14 year old investigative journalist wannabe she’d just met.

I would have thought that a horror video competition would encourage originality but most of the videos seem to be of girls being chased through the woods. “Everyone shot their videos in the woods.”

We hear about “creepy nursery rhyme recitations” but the vagueness of this detracts from any potential creepiness.

If Evelyn (Sabrina’s best and maybe only friend) was so concerned about Sabrina’s safety while meeting some random person from the internet then why didn’t she go with her? Originally I thought I might like Evelyn with her dyed streak in her hair and somewhat rebellious attitude. I was wrong.

“I care about popularity, and I need you to pull it together, Sabrina. We are perfectly positioned to be in the mid-tier of cool next year, which means we will at least be popular enough to get invited to the good parties. But that’s not going to happen if you keep up with running around like this.”

When it seems as though Sabrina is in actual danger she lies to her mother. I spent most of the book wondering why Sabrina didn’t tell her mother what she was investigating and then I found out. Sabrina finally tells her Mum and she’s not believed. Okay, question answered.

I wasn’t sure why Sabrina didn’t try to warn her sister that she feared she’d be the next victim. Even with the adults of the world in collective disbelief and the risk of not being believed by Faith either, I still would have been warning her to be “super” careful.

Do sophomores and seniors have classes together? They do in this book.

I found it odd that Sabrina didn’t know that the guy her best friend had a crush on last summer is the same guy she has a crush on now; the one she gushes over in the coffee shop in the first chapter. The page after this confusion Evelyn seems to get confused about why Sabrina would be mentioning her uncle in relation to the missing girl. You know, the only uncle that’s mentioned in the book; the police detective.

I doubt detective uncle would be revealing details of an open case to his 14 year old niece. It was also fairly convenient that both times his niece dropped by the police station Uncle John just so happened to be working and sitting at his desk.

While I loved the front cover image and it’s part of the reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place there’s no mention in the entire book of a ferris wheel. Funland “featured go karts, an arcade, and mini-golf”. I had really hoped for a clichéd but fun final scene atop the ferris wheel or on some other unseen but amusement type ride. I was quite disappointed in the big reveal and the explanation that followed.

I came across plenty of typos but as I read an ARC I expect/hope they would have been corrected prior to publication. There was a fair bit of time spent recounting information the characters and reader already know. There were also some sentences that didn’t exactly fit well with what followed, e.g., “Sabrina didn’t sleep at all that night.” The rest of the paragraph talks about her waking up from nightmares.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read this book. Had the blurb not given away too much I expect I would have enjoyed it more.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Sabrina Sebastian’s goal in life is to be an investigative reporter. For her first big story, she researches a popular website called Scream Site, where people post scary videos and compete for the most “screams.” While Sabrina’s friends and her sister, Faith, talk nonstop about the creepy viral videos, Sabrina just hopes that covering this trend will get her the internship she’s wishing for. But as she digs into the truth behind the website, she begins to suspect that these aren’t only aspiring actors and videographers at work. Some clips seem a little too real. And when Faith goes missing, Sabrina must race against time to save her sister from becoming the next video “star.”

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Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn’t – John Atkinson

This is one of those super quick (about five minutes) and quirky reads. John Atkinson summarises classic novels in a few words, with each entry accompanied by an illustration or two.

I found I enjoyed the summaries if I’d read the book referenced already or at least knew the basics of the story. For those classics included where I wasn’t already familiar with the plot I found myself thinking some variation of ‘Oh, okay’ or ‘I don’t get it’.

My favourites summaries are:

The Handmaid’s Tale – An oppressive patriarchy controls women’s bodies. This book is also about that.

Charlotte’s Web – Clever web designer saves a pig.

I borrowed this book from my library (I love my library). I can imagine people buying this as a gift book. I’d already read many of the entries online though and while I’m glad I read the book I won’t be buying it.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A collection of irreverent summations of more than 100 well-known works of literature, from Anna Karenina to Wuthering Heights, cleverly described in the fewest words possible and accompanied with funny color illustrations.

Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn’t is packed with dozens of humorous super-condensed summations of some of the most famous works of literature from many of the world’s most revered authors, including William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë, Leo Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, Margaret Atwood, James Joyce, Plato, Ernest Hemingway, Dan Brown, Ayn Rand, and Herman Melville.

From “Old ladies convince a guy to ruin Scotland” (Macbeth) to “Everyone is sad. It snows.” (War and Peace), these clever, humorous synopses are sure to make book lovers smile. 

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