There's nothing like a humorous middle-grade book to cheer up kids at home from school during a pandemic and the second installment of the adventures There's nothing like a humorous middle-grade book to cheer up kids at home from school during a pandemic and the second installment of the adventures of Sal and Gabi is likely to provoke plenty of laughter. Remember how Sal came up with a clever plan to help Gabi's baby brother Iggy? Well, plans like that in the multiverse come with plenty of complications. And nothing is as complicated as more Sals and more Gabis showing up and creating confusion. Why just Fix Gabi (an ectoplasmic Gabi) and Extra Gabi alone are a handful. But Stupid Sal? Whoa.
While I am sure that middle graders are going to have fun with this one, I felt that the novel's plotting was overly complicated and I have to say that there were things in the novel that just bothered me. The dash of Spanglish for ethnic color would be better if the Spanish was actually correct. Witness "cacaseca" which is two words in Castillian Spanish or just about any other brand of Spanish. We see more of this, like "rompenoche" instead of rompe noche, and basically, I feel like the Spanish is being reduced to hashtags, which is troubling. I had listened to the audiobook of the first book in the series (Break the Universe) so I went back and looked at the print edition and this is indeed the spelling that is being presented in the finished novel. I was also distressed to have Type 1 Diabetes mislabeled an autoimmune deficiency, which is really not correct. It can be a feature of some immunodysregulation syndromes but it is, strictly speaking, an autoimmune disease in which antibodies destroy islets of Langerhans cells in the pancreas. That is not an "autoimmune deficiency."
The audiobook is narrated by Anthony Rey Perez, who did a smashing job on the first book in the series.
P.S. Did love the shout out to Roshani Chokshi's Aru Shah series, though.
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Merged review:
There's nothing like a humorous middle-grade book to cheer up kids at home from school during a pandemic and the second installment of the adventures of Sal and Gabi is likely to provoke plenty of laughter. Remember how Sal came up with a clever plan to help Gabi's baby brother Iggy? Well, plans like that in the multiverse come with plenty of complications. And nothing is as complicated as more Sals and more Gabis showing up and creating confusion. Why just Fix Gabi (an ectoplasmic Gabi) and Extra Gabi alone are a handful. But Stupid Sal? Whoa.
While I am sure that middle graders are going to have fun with this one, I felt that the novel's plotting was overly complicated and I have to say that there were things in the novel that just bothered me. The dash of Spanglish for ethnic color would be better if the Spanish was actually correct. Witness "cacaseca" which is two words in Castillian Spanish or just about any other brand of Spanish. We see more of this, like "rompenoche" instead of rompe noche, and basically, I feel like the Spanish is being reduced to hashtags, which is troubling. I had listened to the audiobook of the first book in the series (Break the Universe) so I went back and looked at the print edition and this is indeed the spelling that is being presented in the finished novel. I was also distressed to have Type 1 Diabetes mislabeled an autoimmune deficiency, which is really not correct. It can be a feature of some immunodysregulation syndromes but it is, strictly speaking, an autoimmune disease in which antibodies destroy islets of Langerhans cells in the pancreas. That is not an "autoimmune deficiency."
The audiobook is narrated by Anthony Rey Perez, who did a smashing job on the first book in the series.
P.S. Did love the shout out to Roshani Chokshi's Aru Shah series, though.
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review....more
Well that wasn't what I expected... You can get these shorts on the author's website.Well that wasn't what I expected... You can get these shorts on the author's website....more
A very long romance novel loaded with a variety of tropes, requiring the usual suspension of belief. I didn't particularly care for the alpha2.5 Stars
A very long romance novel loaded with a variety of tropes, requiring the usual suspension of belief. I didn't particularly care for the alpha male attitude of the male protagonist Knox, even with the overlay of it stemming from trauma. While Naomi was a bright, kind character, I found some aspects of her abundant naivete grating. My favorite character was a secondary character Sloane, a librarian. I was troubled by the lack of therapeutic care for an abandoned child, and the pretty unrealistic writing about that child given her life experience. No court hearings for kinship custody? Anyway, this was just one of the things that irked me. Nevertheless I finished it....more
A diverting read for lovers of murder mysteries and The Great British Bake Off. Set at an aging mansion in Grafton, Vermont, a murder disrupts what wiA diverting read for lovers of murder mysteries and The Great British Bake Off. Set at an aging mansion in Grafton, Vermont, a murder disrupts what will be the final season of Betsy Martin’s “Bake Week.” But it’s neither simple to solve, nor is all (or everyone) what it seems....more
Of course, Emily is so much more fun than Andie but I loved Miriam. Miriam felt real. Karolina was also interesting, if hopelessly naive, since as a rOf course, Emily is so much more fun than Andie but I loved Miriam. Miriam felt real. Karolina was also interesting, if hopelessly naive, since as a reader, I spent much of the book screaming at her to wake up! Lina definitely had a lovely Paulina Porizkova vibe....more
This felt like such a stretch to try to recapture the success of the first book. You could tell where it was headed for most of the book… Good descripThis felt like such a stretch to try to recapture the success of the first book. You could tell where it was headed for most of the book… Good description of dealing (or not) with ptsd, though....more
This novella made me miss the Kate Daniels world so much. I want more of Kate and Curran, more Julie and Derek, more Hugh and Elara… MOAR.Moar please…
This novella made me miss the Kate Daniels world so much. I want more of Kate and Curran, more Julie and Derek, more Hugh and Elara… MOAR. Please?...more