As I do with most books, I listened to the audiobook. Had I just read the book, this may have warranted 3* instead of 2*. The narrator's natural voiceAs I do with most books, I listened to the audiobook. Had I just read the book, this may have warranted 3* instead of 2*. The narrator's natural voice is fine; however, all of the teens voices outside of the main character were grating. We already know teens can be obnoxious (hormones and whatnot), do they really need to sound like the most annoying people, too? It reminded me of my husband's attempts at trying to sound like the stereotypical nerdy "um actually" crowd. 7 hours of this was just too much. Even outside of the voice issue, I didn't *love* the story. It seemed to me like the big adventure of the book was supposed to be (view spoiler)[the pirate takeover (hide spoiler)], which didn't happen until 2/3 - 3/4 of the way through the book. I would prefer a book that has a consistent level of adventure throughout....more
This is an age appropriate book for children (including some fun and adventure) to learn about an issue that EVERYONE would benefit from knowing existThis is an age appropriate book for children (including some fun and adventure) to learn about an issue that EVERYONE would benefit from knowing exists. It was also beautifully narrated by the author....more
I really liked the "ghost story" part of the story; however, one of my biggest pet peeves with chapter books (books in general, I suppose, but I see iI really liked the "ghost story" part of the story; however, one of my biggest pet peeves with chapter books (books in general, I suppose, but I see it far more often in chapter books) is when the story only works because 1) the family is rich, or 2) the parents/adults are crappy or nonexistent. IMO it's lazy writing when you use one of those two devices to make the plot work. Unfortunately, this one had the latter in a bad way. It wasn't even a matter of "the rest of the story wouldn't have been believable if the parents just acted like decent parents"; instead, they're just written as crappy parents...for the sake of being crappy parents? I understand adults aren't perfect and shouldn't be portrayed as such. Sure, take up smoking or a video game addiction because it's a way to cope with depression. But the (my paraphrase) "Way to go @12 year old son. YOU'RE the reason your sister is missing. Why did you even bother to come home if you were going to come home without her?" is a level of [at least borderline] abuse that puts me off of this book and only allows me to give it 2-3 stars....more
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