Twins Alex and Connor receive a book of fairy tales for their 12th birthday and end up falling through into the Land of Stories. They're on a scavenger hunt through familiar lands and people to collect the 8 items to get back home again.

I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. It's a clever plot, and I loved seeing different sides of favorite characters. (Although Goldie and her swords are probably the best of all.) It's clearly a debut novel and fairly uneven, but the dialogue is great and he sets the scenes really well. I think the scenes between fairy tale characters were much better than the ones that included the twins - they seemed awkward, and simultaneously younger and older than they should have been. I could see this adapting to the screen easily, it's so visual, and I bet his screenplay for his upcoming movie is very strong. He's got an ear for speech rhythms and humor.

There were many places where I was mentally editing, though - the editor let a lot of things through that would have been so simple to tighten up. That led to just flying through some chapters because I was so engaged, and then getting pulled out of the story and having a hard time getting back in. I'm trying to figure out who will enjoy it, outside of Glee fans. I guess paired with Frances O'Roark Dowell's Falling In, or maybe Anne Ursu's Breadcrumbs, but I'm not sure kids will stick through the slower bits, and I think some of the lines will go over their heads. I think his next book is YA, so we'll see how that goes.

This all sounds complainey, but for a 22 year old's first book, it's pretty good. I'm guessing he'll keep getting better, but not if they keep rushing things to publication like this.