Tell, or the Adventures in Themiddle

by L.N. Mayer, Nunez Suarez Ricardo (Illustrations)

Having been expelled from Theffects School for Troubled Boys, William Teller ('Tell'), the son of a skiving small-town mayor returns home to find an empty house and a farewell letter from his father. Knowing his father to play an arcane prank every now and then, he thinks nothing of it—until the neighbors and representatives from a local orphanage show up. When Tell flees to a nearby wheat field and is greeted by a babbling, self-proclaimed ‘tree-expert’ who claims that Tell’s wandering imagination has been rearranging his silverware, it marks the beginning of a series of unbelievable encounters. Only when he comes face to face with a shape-shifting elephant that obeys all—well, some—of the ideas in his head does Tell slowly start to accept that the strange Mr. Theys may be on to something. Unfortunately for Tell and his imagination, others are on to it, too... Confronted with powerful forces taking over a world that isn’t his, where belief is outlawed and people carry pocket mirrors for protection, it will take a butler with a hidden agenda, a surly wolf and a man with two bodies looking for a run-away king to help Tell uncover his father’s unimaginable secret…

300 pages, ebook

Published January 10, 2020

About the author

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, L.N. Mayer recently put her career in project management on hold to pursue the publication of her first book for young readers, TELL, OR THE ADVENTURES IN THEMIDDLE. She currently lives outside of Paris, France.

Read an interview with the author on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/...

Reviews

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley

DNF @ 66%

This book was an inexplicable mess from the start. Halfway through, I STILL couldn't follow it. Things just kept happening with no apparent sense or proper explanation. But that would have been fine - I was planning to finish it, give it 3 stars and declare that I was too stupid for the book because I couldn't follow it. This happens. It could certainly be a fault of mine.

But then this line happened:
"her beautiful long, stick-straight hair had been ruined and now fell in wild curls to her chin."
And NOW I'm angry rating it 1 star.

You could have called it messy. Just that would have been enough. But no. When hair is ruined, it becomes curly. Naturally.

I've been bullied about my curly hair all my life. Books are my safe space. I don't need my books to casually bully me by saying the way I was born is inferior to what society is already pushing on my every day. I fight hard enough to not hate my hair seeing it in the mirror every day, thank you very much.

And perhaps if I wasn't bullied about it, I wouldn't be reacting this harshly. But after 30 years of trying to wrestle myself into something I'm not, every little drop is the last one. I can't bear hearing this alongside the constant ads about how "I was born wrong and need to fix myself."

Dear author, I could tell you what to do with your opinion on curly hair. But I will not let you bully me into hating the way I look again. I've done it for 20 years and I am done.

I'm deleting this the hell off my Kindle.

Oh, and thanks for the review copy, I guess. Thanks, but no thanks.

[Pallavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant surprise. This is a beautiful middle grade, tweens book. I am so happy to get the chance to read this. I am definitely gonna read it to my son.

The book begins with a boy named William, or Tell, who is discharged from school to find a beast after witnessing the beast make a boy disappear.
The book is filled with magic, fantasy, dreams and all possible imagination.

The Author has a great way with narration and can instantly make you feel the vibe that she wants to convey. She also has an impeccable hold over vocabulary, which is perfect for children.

The world building is inviting, exciting and powerful. The cover and a intriguing blurb makes you wanna read it.
Vivid descriptions paired with adventurous storyline holds that attention and keeps you hooked to the book.

It is written in luminous language and has a calmness. I definitely enjoyed the novel very much and recommend it to readers especially tweens who love fantasy, and believe in magic.

[Lucianne Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story full of creativity that allows you to go deep into Tell’s imagination. A great read to disconnect and just enjoy.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far one of the most creative stories I have read in years! So many young adult books follow the same tropes -- which made the colorful, humorous, and fantastical scenes of this novel extra enjoyable. The author's ability to put music and instruments into words was a revelation! There's a lot of plot in this book and it ends with a great cliff hanger -- which hopefully means Mayer is planning at least one follow on. Not sure what the previous reviewer was referring to re grammatical errors...the version I read was pretty much textbook.
Highly recommended for any age, but especially hungry readers looking to expand their minds and vocabularies!

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tell is at boarding school being bullied, when a mysterious entity comes and makes the bully disappear. Tell is sent home, where he finds a letter from his father saying ‘If you’re reading this, I am dead.’
He is unsure if his father is truly dead, or if this is one of his father’s elaborate pranks. He runs away from men who want to put him in an orphanage, and meets a strange scholar in the wheat fields.

I couldn’t finish this book. I got 50 pages in, and gave up. There are not a ton of errors in grammar, but enough that it got on my nerves. There are misplaced pronouns that make the writing confusing.

There are a lot of misplaced modifiers, but I think that might have been done on purpose for some sort of artistic effect. Another error that I think might have been an artsy attempt: the use of nouns as adjectives. I give that one a pass if it’s cleverly done, but this was just confusing.

How does a plant die because it has “miser spirits”? I think this was meant to be “miserable spirits”. So you can add typos to the list of things wrong with this book.

There is no excuse for writing “moot” when the sentence should obviously say “mute”. Add spelling errors to the list.

I had to read the following sentence four times before giving up in disgust. “The boy nodded his head and the doctor then his.“
That is the most convoluted and ridiculous way to say they both nodded. The adverb is miles away from where it belongs and both the verb and object are missing from the second half of that sentence.
I mean, you could get away with taking out the object at the end, because the pronoun will handle that job, but not without a verb!

Sometimes I think the author must have sat down with a thesaurus and picked the biggest word. Never mind if it’s clear writing or if it makes any sense!

The plot is imaginative, but I didn’t care about the one main character. The supporting characters don’t have any depth in the beginning, and even the main character is only mildly interesting. Maybe they get more development later.

The style is whimsical and the plot is chaotic, which is another reason why it didn’t grab my attention. I like structure, and this plot reminded me of some “Alice in Wonderland” wildness. However, I know many people enjoy that kind of style.
If you don’t care about grammar, you might enjoy this book.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review.

[Victoria Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, chronicling a few exciting days in the life of ten-year-old William Teller. The setting is a fantasy land in eastern Kansas, and we follow Tell as he searches for something vitally important to him. He meets several fascinating characters on his quest, some of whom help him and some who don’t. A few problems are explained and resolved by the end of the book. Others are left for the sequel. The story flows nicely and the dialogue is seamless and believable. There are stories within stories within the main story, but it all works out in the end.
I used Calibre to read the epub edition of this book. The formatting and paging were perfect. At the end of Chapter 19, there is a reference to a pigeon coup. At the beginning of Chapter 21, there are three instances of a horse’s reigns; after that, the word reins is used. With those minor exceptions, the spelling, grammar, and punctuation are impeccable.

[Nahid · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at 34%

This book has Alice in Wonderland vibes in its uniqueness that really stretches the imagination. The writing style and plot itself aren't bad - I actually think the author's writing style is quite good, but the story just wasn't for me. I can see this as a movie, and I think that format would have been more digestible for me. I'm also unsure who the target audience is. The writing style seems a bit chaotic for the average child but a bookworm may love it.

While I do see the merit and talent of the author in her storytelling, the story just wasn't for me.

[Nemesia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The promise is intriguing and the writing rather good, but it doesn't really sparkle. Maybe the universe is a bit too confusing and would deserve to be simplified or introduced more clearly.
But I'll keep an eye out for the second book of this author.

[Abantika(hiltonjenkin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel opens with a regular dodgeball game between Tell and his friends (which incidentally was not going that great for him) and proceeds to create a mysterious environment by the end of the first chapter itself. The book is everything adventurous, fun and thrilling.

Mayer has a great way with narration and can instantly make you feel the vibe that she wants to convey. She also has an impeccable hold over vocabulary and it definitely makes the difference in impact. Also, the world building was gradually done and did not seem rushed or overdone .

The inviting cover and a powerful and equally crisp prologue gets your attention instantly. Vivid descriptions paired with adventurous storyline holds that attention and keeps you hooked to the book through out. The story though is targeted for middle grade readers, had me completely invested in it. It is written in lucid language and has a soothing flow.

I definitely enjoyed the novel very much and recommend it to readers irrespective of age. Though children and young adolescents are surely going to heart it even more.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Because the only thing that matters, if you haven’t noticed Tell, is what you believe yourself.”⁣
⁣
⭐⭐⭐/5 I really struggled with this one. Tell, or the Adventures in Themiddle read like a troubling dream, one that I just couldn't seem to wake up from.⁣
⁣
Tell faced one bizarre obstacle after another in Themiddle, where "believe" is the new b-word. And while I would have liked to have been riveted by his journey, I instead found myself unbearably bored.⁣
⁣
I valiantly persevered to the end, all the while hoping that something wonderful might happen to redeem this story. Sadly, my hope was misplaced. The ending happened rather abruptly and left me feeling just as discombobulated and dissatisfied as the previous pages.⁣
⁣
That being said, I am giving this tale three out of five stars because though the story was lacking, the writing was not and that is worth the mention.⁣
⁣
Also, Ricardo Nunez Suarez did a brilliant job with the cover illustration! Check out his IG feed (@rinusuarez) to see the full design.⁣

[Melati Lum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this interesting Middle-Grade novel is definitely one that gets you thinking, and then, thinking about the reality of what you were thinking. Like Lewis Carroll's classic, there is quite a bit of confusion about what's happening, although the confusion in the present story is magnified with the author's use of "The" in front of every single place and sometimes people. The story is structured almost like a collection of a number of short stories told in a curious yet clever way.
Tell is a young boy who is discharged from Theffects School for Troubled Boys after he is accused of the disappearance of one of his fellow students. The story follows Tell on a series of adventures to find out the truth of who he is and where he came from. I would have liked there to have been more closure in the ending of the story, even though it is set up for a continuing series. Tell or the Adventures in Themiddle would make a thought-provoking addition to a middle-grade classroom.
Rating: 3.5 stars

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an electronic ARC from BooksGoSocial through NetGalley.
The ideas behind this book make an interesting idea for a story. However, the implementation falls far short. I did finish the whole story though I debated abandoning it at several points.
Mayer's characters are less than appealing and seem to wander through the entire book without a connected purpose. The bookend chapters that are set in the "present" attempt to explain what the rest of the book is about - with some satire thrown in.
One more edit for grammar and typos would have helped immensely though may not have fixed the overall flow and lack of transitions.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a great read! I loved following Tell on his journey to self-discovery! As a mother of a tween and a 9-year old, who both love to read, I would have no hesitation giving this novel to them to read - the characters were interesting and well written, the language and vocabulary were appropriate (and will help them to learn) and the message is an extremely powerful one. Highly recommended.

[Billy Buttons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Tell, or the Adventures in Themiddle
Author: L N Mayer

Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers:
Stats
Editing: 10/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Content: 8/10
Cover: 10/10
Of the 22 readers:
22 would read another book by this author.
22 thought the cover was good or excellent.
21 felt it was easy to follow.
22 would recommend this book to another reader to try.
Of all the readers, 4 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
Of all the readers, 8 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
Of all the readers, 10 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘writing style’.
18 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
22 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.

Readers’ Comments
“This is such a fantastically odd book, from the amazing cover to the twisting, turning plot. The children in my class thought it was a very ‘different’ book which they felt was a good thing. They congratulated the author on her wild imagination and her ability to surprise her children readers.” Primary school teacher, aged 41
“I thought this book was a very interesting read. I liked Tell a lot and I thought the plot was surprising with many odd and super-fun characters.” Girl reader, aged 12
“Although it was a little slow for me, it got better and better. I loved all the crazy characters and the plot was never predictable. The writing was amazing and so was the cover!” Boy, aged 13
“Cool story which had a sort of dream feel to it. I want to read the next book.” Boy, aged 11

To Sum It Up:
‘An incredibly well-written, middle grade novel packed full of wild imaginings. A BRONZE MEDAL WINNER and highly recommended!’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards


The sequel is coming out in September 2021: https://youtu.be/geIDVcDoZyE

[Meghan Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. There were too many issues for me to continue reading. Firstly, if a letter from your father saying "If you're reading this, I'm dead" is a practical joke; that's disgusting.

Secondly; the rigid confinements of what is "beautiful" is absurd; especially when the audience has such an impressionable mind as to how they should look or act.

[Bassline1414yahoo.Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may be trite to call this book “imaginative” since the book is about imagination, but I think it is apt. The world LN Mayer creates, with its own lingo, unique settings, and memorable characters fits that word to a T. As an adult, I am not the target audience for this book so I can’t speak to how it would play to your typical YA reader, but I found it to be an engaging read.

[Ana Lopes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC in change of an honest review through NetGalley, all the opinions are my own. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.
Rating: 3.5
This book was a trip, believe me. So let's debunk this book:

The story was about a boy, William Teller and his journey to find his father that disappeared one day suddenly, after sending him to Theffects School for Troubled Boys. Through his journey he meets a lot of different characters that help him find his imagination, that Tell thought to be lost, and later on his father. This book reads almost like a fairy tail, reminding me of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (I'm gonna put it here just because, but I feel like this would be great in film format specially if it was made into a Ghibli film).
Now here's a line from the book that pretty much summarizes it:
"Whatever,” he snapped. “All I’m saying is—what I’m trying to say is…” (...) A giggle escaped his lips. “I think I’m going mad.” Same, Tell, same.

This book had an unusual writing style which truly didn't bother me much but the use of the article "The" before the name of places, i.e. Theffects, Thejalis, Theconsulor and so on was a bit unusual. It was pretty confusing at times to keep track of those and therefore memorize the names. It also kind of ticked me off having always "The" followed by something, which with an already abnormal plot made it even more confusing.
Some of the characters were memorable and likable such as Aiderider, Weekend and Carter. As for our main character Tell, I wasn't really invested in his story and there wasn't a big development character wise, I feel I reached the end of the book with a pretty undeveloped Tell. Sure enough I wanted to follow him until the end and figure out if he was able to find his imagination and be able to control it but there was nothing else besides that.
Unfortunately, there were a few typos and grammatical errors which made me bring my score down a bit.
Overall I'm very thankful to have received an ARC of this book but it was definitely a weird book in a good way if you know what I mean.

P.S. I had this HUGE pet peeve with the way Weekend kept going back and forth bewtween calling Aiderider, Aider or Rider. Like, dude, stick to one!

[Magda Kempa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book entitled “Tell, or the Adventures in Themiddle” is a debut from young American author Lindsay Nicole Mayer. The target audience are adolescents, but I think that adult readers fond of adventure, fantasy and good reads in general will appreciate it as well.

The book tells a story of a young boy called Tell that was placed in a boarding school for troubled children by his father. Tell has problems related to controlling his emotional outbreaks and anxiety. One evening a monstrous creature appears in his bedroom and makes another boy that bullied him earlier disappear. Tell is accused of making him disappear and is discharged. When he leaves the school a series of incredible adventures happen to him. He meets uncanny characters during all his odyssey (a man that has one mind but two bodies called Weekday and Weekend, also named Thepeacekeeper, accordingly to his role in the realm; a girl with red hair that happens to have tiny blood vessels so she loses consciousness every time she has to cut it her hair, a wolf named Aiderider, who plays music and is vegetarian; and many others…).

The reader learns with time that Tell is an extraordinary boy because, unlike the majority of people, he is blessed with imagination (he’s one of “imaginers”), and that’s why he’s dangerous to the men in power whose will is to control all subjects. That’s also why, if you’re planning to go to “Themiddle”, you should carry a pocket mirror with you, because only real and not imagined creatures have a reflection. It’s hard to count all amazing things that happen to Tell, but one thing is sure, the reader isn’t bored at any time. They’re astonished by the adventures, vivid characters, many of which have a great sense of humour.

However, the book isn’t only a report of extraordinary adventures, it’s also a story that reflects on the power of the mind, imagination, wits and the danger that free-thinkers represent to oppressive and conformist governments. It’s a story about having the courage to carry on even though you don’t understand what’s going on around you and you’re alone. It’s also a story about the quest of the family and the need to understand where you come from and a story about growing up, finding oneself and learning what’s important: “Because the only thing that matters, if you haven’t noticed Tell, is what you believe yourself”.

[Alexia Polasky]

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I gave this one a fair try —a little over 30%—, but I wasn't able to get into the story or connect with any of the characters. I felt it was a bit all over the place and the story should at least have started taking some shape by almost a third of the book. I also found it quite offensive towards people’s physical appearance. So I’ll pass on this one.