Great Middle Grade Reads discussion
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The Mostly Invisible Boy
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BOTM for June is The Mostly Invisible Boy
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SaraKat
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rated it 4 stars
May 31, 2020 04:45PM
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Hi all, thought I'd make a quick author appearance (and then get out of the way). In case you missed it earlier, here's a short synopsis:Eleven-year-old Casey Grimes is invisible. Really. When he leaves suburbia and infiltrates a secret forest society, he can finally be seen—but Sylvan Woods hates outsiders as much as it loves killing monsters. As Butcher Beasts invade, his flimsy cover story falls apart, and courage is his only chance to belong.
More on the book page, of course.
Here's a link to the discounted .99 ebook, June 1 - June 8:
https://intensepublications.com/shop/...
I'd also like to make free e-copies available for those willing to review on Amazon as well as here. Shoot me a message if you're interested.
Here's hoping you enjoy The Mostly Invisible Boy!
So, I'm curious if anyone else wants a little sister like Gloria. There were so many awesome things in this book. What did you all think?
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This book had the familiar trope of a middle school age child being thrust into a fantastical community and attending (even if for a short time) a school. It was surprising that the school was firmly not magical, though!
Casey, the protagonist, seemed a little too eager to lead himself and his little sister into terribly dangerous situations, but I reconsidered this judgment after reminding myself of his invisibility problem. He was so desperate for human interaction that almost dying probably wouldn't seem so bad!
I thought the sibling relationship was nice, but perhaps a little too nice. Gloria was a too-perfect little sister and seemed to be especially lucky at finding things exactly when they were needed. Perhaps she will be revealed in later books to have some special magical talent.
I liked that the author didn't make Casey and Gloria into long-lost Sylvan family members, since that would have reinforced the stereotypes and prejudice the Sylvans had for Civilians.
I thought the explanation for the invisibility was interesting (I began to wonder if we would find out at all!) and explained all the cleaning that the babysitter thought was more important than keeping her charges alive. She didn't seem to care if the parents came home to living children or corpses, which was a little weird.
Overall, a fun read for me, but it seemed slow at times and I felt like we went back and forth over treeways and spent a lot of time traveling in the text. :)
Also, the author made up some very odd expressions involving eyes in this one, such as "Casey's eyes did backflips". My favorite and the most perplexing was "Casey's eyes pinned themselves to the sides of his face." he he he
SaraKat wrote: "Casey's eyes pinned themselves to the sides of his face."I totally missed this! Where is it in the book?
I think what I loved most about Gloria is that she took in the Sylvan world so differently than Casey. Though at times she was perhaps just 'along for the ride', she saw and did things that seemed so right for a kid who didn't have any qualms about loving wonder. Sparkles and unicorns were her favs, and she let everyone know. Casey fought so hard through the book for identity, which I think is why I loved that the author gave him a little sister that loved him as him. I'm not sure Casey always appreciated that.
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I totally missed this! Where is it in the book?
I think what I loved most about Gloria is that she took in the Sylvan worl..."
I agree that in the story, Gloria is a wonderful little sister and Casey is a great big brother, but their closeness and obvious love made me wonder about before the story. Casey was surprised to hear that Gloria was invisible at school as well! It seems like that would have come up at some point since they could only ever be friends with each other. :)
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I enjoyed it, although found it a little disjointed at times. Gloria is a little unrealistic, but maybe she's going to have even more powers in later books, which would explain it.
But a thoroughly enjoyable read, right on age range, and a good mix of characters for people to relate to.
I'll review it on my blog next month, and post that to Goodreads. I need to catch up on my Amazon postings, too. :)
I found this book quite enjoyable. There were a few parts that felt confusing because I struggled to keep everything and everyone straight, but overall I enjoyed the premise and read it in just a couple of days.
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I wonder if those were same places I found disjointed?
Jemima wrote: "J.S. wrote: "I found this book quite enjoyable. There were a few parts that felt confusing because I struggled to keep everything and everyone straight, but overall I enjoyed the premise and read i..."I'd guess they were. Usually they feel disjointed for a reason and are felt by most readers.
