Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: Middle Grade
Stars: 1/5 stars
Synopsis:
Sarah Field lives alone with her dad, a teacher at her school. The two of them share a close bond and, unusually, both have the same birthday, which they also share with Sarah's grandfather, who died when Sarah was small. Sarah knows very little about her grandfather, and her dad insists on keeping it that way.
However, one night, Sarah finds her dad acting in a mysterious way and also hears strange noises after her dad has gone out. Sarah's friends come to the rescue to help her investigate, and they make a shocking discovery. Someone is living in the attic! And that someone is none other than Sarah's grandfather! But, this is no ordinary grandfather...
With the discovery of her grandfather comes the question as to whether Sarah has the power to give life to the amulet - the Telum Deos - that will help to fight the forces of darkness.
Sarah's Review:
I really wanted to like this book, and I guess there were parts that I did like, so I will start there. The book started out really strong, and I think the outline of the book was great. I think there were good ideas. However, I also feel like there needed to be a major amount of editing done to turn this into a great book.
Sarah is our main character, and I really liked her. Until, she she has to carry a conversation with the "cute" boy in her school. As soon as she has to talk she turns into a bumbling idiot. If we are going to have a heroine that is strong enough to defeat darkness and slay vampires, she can carry a simple conversation, form a coherent thought, and she can be confident. It is unacceptable to be portraying young girls in this light while also trying to profit off of a strong female lead.
The relationship between Sarah and her dad started out great, which I always love to see. Unfortunately, their relationship had a lot of toxic qualities to it as the book went on. I think the dad was not mature enough to handle a relationship with a teenage daughter, and we saw him lose his temper multiple times even when Sarah wasn't necessarily the reason he was upset. The dad is a teacher at Sarah's school, and should be way more versed in handling a relationship with a teenager than what we saw. The relationships between Sarah, Racheal, Shaw and Jack were sweet. They seemed like really supportive and caring friends. I would have liked to see more of them, as their involvement in the book seemed choppy and rushed. There were other side characters that seemed to have no purpose.
There were two specific sections of dialogue that made no sense and felt really choppy. I also think at times the author tried too hard to be funny, when this isn't exactly a comedy. However, there were a lot of pop culture references that I really liked!
The final thing that was upsetting when reading this book is that there was a rather fatphobic view towards Eric. Constantly instead of using his name, they referred to him by description of his weight. When writing for a target audience that is at a really impressionable age, having a fatphobic tone to a book can be detrimental.
The little twist at the end was a nice surprise, as nothing else really happened throughout the book. However, it did leave us with a cliffhanger for a hopefully more action packed sequel.
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