Title: Elektra’s Adventures in Tragedy
Author: Douglas Rees
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Elektra is happily becoming a Southern belle in a small Mississippi college town where here father is a professor—and an expert on Greek mythology—and her mother is a struggling wannabe writer. Then, without warning, her mom packs Elektra and her sister in the car to move to California.

They end up in Guadalupe Slough, a tiny community outside of San Jose that’s filled with a lot of colorful people. Home is a decrepit houseboat on a mudflat, complete with a pet tarantula. Elektra will do anything to get back to Mississippi and her father, even if it means stealing, but she soon finds out there’s more to what’s going on than meets the eye.

So…I enjoyed this book. For one thing, because it’s one of the few YA books I’ve read without a strong romance plot. Elektra is an interesting character. She starts off pretty self-centered and kind of a spoiled brat but being in a different environment and learning new things is good for her, as are the interesting people she meets. She ends up being much more aware of what’s going on around her, and much more caring as well.

The setting and secondary characters are a little flat, without a lot of details or description. I never had a clear picture of Guadalupe Slough apart from dusty and dry. There’s an interesting mix of secondary characters, but they’re a little one-dimensional. Even so, this was a quick, pleasant read.

Douglas Rees is a children’s librarian and the author of 15 children’s books. Elektra’s Adventures in Tragedy is his newest novel.

(Galley provided by Running Press Kids in exchange for an honest review.)

I'm ten percent of the way through, and it's such a slog. I don't usually DNF books, but I just have no desire at all to read this book. The characters are unappealing and the plot has not hooked me. I'm afraid I have to DNF.

I wanted to like this book, but the book ended up being a DNF for me. I felt the writing was quirky for the sake of being quirky or trying to make the story more interesting. The writing was not that good and even had a part where you couldn't tell who was speaking the line at first. Some plot points did not make much sense and others just felt odd because the author probably thought it would make the book more likable. Overall I did not enjoy what i read of this book at all & I couldn't even finish it.

I struggled with this one. I forced myself to finish. I just felt like this was missing something.
I didn't find myself really liking any of the characters. Nor did I feel like any of their actions were all that believable. I think I get the author was going for, but it was just off-the-mark. Elektra was a little too snobby and into herself in Mississippi. So much so that she missed her parents failing marriage. Too much of this just seemed too unrealistic.