Mark answers “Is this a good book”

Unicorns_and_books asked this question about Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (Mr. Lemoncello's Library, #1):

Is this a good book

Mark Not really. It tries hard, but it's clear that the author doesn't share any of the passions of the characters.

The biggest issue is how the board games…moreNot really. It tries hard, but it's clear that the author doesn't share any of the passions of the characters.

The biggest issue is how the board games are treated, which are a HUGE part of the book. Anyone who has played any modern board game will cringe that the game designer character has made hundreds of games... all of which are roll and move or trivia based. There are literally hundreds of games published every year, if the author wanted to feature a game designer he could have taken the time to see what games 12 year olds are playing these days.

Another issue is that the characters are completely flat. They read as ciphers and stereotypes and there is no character growth. Yes, this is a young reader book, but my 8 year old felt insulted by the simplicity of the characters.

This book is FILLED with name drops of books... but very few of them are good books. Instead, it seems that the author took the standard reading list for 7th grade and treated it as a checklist.

Lastly, the "puzzles" in the book fall into the Dan Brown trap of either being blindingly obvious and stupid or requiring specialized knowledge that if you don't have there's no way of solving.

Might be fun for most kids, but this book missed every opportunity to introduce the reader to something new and exciting and instead wrote a formulaic book about things the author doesn't seem to care about.(less)

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Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

by Chris Grabenstein (Goodreads Author)

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