Tuesday has always guessed that something was weird about her family. Their dad never discussed his job and their dog always acted a little strange. She had come up with several wild theories about what her dad could really be doing for a living, theories that her brother Zed never agreed with. Nevertheless, some of those theories may not be far off from the truth when their parents go on a last-minute business trip and the two are whisked away to a new world named Fallenheim.
Middle-grade fantasy is a genre that I will never truly give up on, although I am definitely not the intended demographic. Some of the books in this genre (Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) shaped my journey as a young reader. These books can still entertain me, so I was very excited to read about Tuesday and Zed’s journey. I also love those names, they feel iconic.
This story had quite a lot going for it. You had a brother-sister middle-grade duo (hello 39 clues, I love the brother-sister duo theme so much). You have parents who Tuesday already thinks have secret second lives from the very start of the book. And then you have kids being thrown into a completely different dimension that is completely disconnected from Earth! The book is very fast-paced and would definitely hold the attention of a younger reader
Once you get past what the book had going for it, you start to see some of its flaws. For starters, I feel like Fallenheim wasn’t as fleshed out as it could have been. You have a modern yet medieval world, but for the most part, the kids spend a majority of the book running around solving riddles. I felt like the worldbuilding could have been done a bit better, as I really didn’t feel as if I was in a different world when I read this book. This should have felt like Narnia to me, a completely different universe that doesn’t follow Earth’s rules and that the kids have to survive to return to their parents. If a bit more time had been spent describing the world, I feel like I wouldn’t have had this same reaction.
Nevertheless, the interesting characters continued to shine throughout the entire story. The characters were the one thing that never disappointed me. The kids felt realistic and were fun to explore with and the adults they ran into had all of their own unique quirks. There were also tables and other small drawings thrown in throughout the story that always made me feel like I was truly on an adventure with kids armed only with a notebook and their deducing skills.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new middle-grade fantasy read. There was a pretty interesting twist at the end of the story, so I have hope that the next book in the series will expand upon the world that was starting to be built up in this story and give us more adventures with these fun characters.
I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 books.
Lovely post! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.