'Hotel Dare' by Terry Blas with art by Claudia Aquirre is a graphic novel about the importance of family, even if that family is from other worlds.

Darwin, Charlotte and Olive find themselves spending a vacation at Grandma Lupe's hotel. Vacation here means cleaning the rooms. Along the way, they learn some strange secrets about the hotel. The rooms are portals to other dimensions with wizards and spaceships and carnivorous puffballs. They also find out that Grandma Lupe knows about this. They set out to help solve the biggest mystery.

The story is just ok. It's a mystery door type story. I had a hard time feeling much for these characters. I didn't think the art was that great. I don't know why kid's books always get the short end on art. Also, one of the characters states she is queer, although I don't know why since that really goes nowhere in the story, and is basically stated in passing. I state it in case that is something you don't want in your kid's books.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from KaBOOM! and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This graphic novel was a lot of fun! Secret portals that lead to other worlds, magic, and most importantly -- coming together as a family!

Thank you BOOM! and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This graphic novel was so fun, it was full of space pirates, bearded wizards, space portals, an evil queen, other world adventures and even a unicorn! It took a little while to figure out the story and the direction it was going in but once that was clear I found it really enjoyable. I loved the characters, Mama Lupé in paticular was one fierce Grandmother! One thing I really liked was the importance on family, both biological and chosen. The illustrations were amazing too! Would definitely recommend.

Wow, first thank you for the chance giving me this Arc. Second, I have never found any book that just hooked me in as much as this. It’s just a package deal. It has LGBTQPIA + representation and poc characters. It was lighthearted but also had deeper meaning behind the story. I loved every character , the art style, and more. I also loved how it focused on the meaning on family above all else. I could definitely reread this over and over again!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this comic!

Rating: 4.5 stars

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this graphic novel! The art and colours were stunning, the characters well rounded and the storyline completely engrossing.

It was wacky and, at times, bizarre but I couldn't help but love it! The relationships in the book were so important, with a strong theme on chosen family. The worlds the characters travelled to were very imaginative and unique!

Overall, I would 100% recommend this to anyone who likes diverse characters, gripping plot and gorgeous art.

The comic "Hotel dare" is in a different category than the ones I’m used to read, however, I liked the different aspects, both for its history, development of the characters, setting and the graphic quality of the drawings.
The authors Terry Blas and Claudia Aguirre present three parallel stories, around fantasy, alternate worlds and magical portals (based on the Aztec mythology). It is a fun and reflective reading, focused on the value of family. I enjoyed the story and illustrations, it is an addictive comic that catches you from the beginning; I would love to read a second part.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me a digital version of the "Hotel Dare" comic.

This one was nice. Focus on both the fantasy world and the true meaning of family. It teaches a life lesson and brings out an amazing world to young readers.

Hotel Dare is exactly the sort of story I would have gobbled up when I was in grade school. As regular readers have no doubt heard far too many times by now, I’m always on the lookout for younger reader-friendly titles that I could share with my stepdaughter, and I found that here. Hotel Dare features three kids who are grappling with who they are, and how aspects of their identity (queerness, anxiety, adopted family dynamics) inter-relate with each other. This serves to enrich the wonderful plot, set in a run-down hotel that also happens to have portals to other universes. The story is fast-paced, exciting, and fun, while never losing the wonderful character dynamics and the gorgeous art. Hotel Dare is wonderfully fun, and I highly recommend it to fans of fantasy and young adult adventure.

This graphic novel is far more beautiful than I thought it would ever be. The story follows three siblings as they spend time with their grandmother at the hotel that she owns. The grandmother doesn't have a relationship with her son and one of the siblings was newly adopted, which put into play some deep reflections and insights on family. Throughout the book, the family encounters different worlds and works together. This is a strong "found family" graphic novel with a diverse cast, beautiful prose, and lush illustrations. A must have!

Hotel Dare is beautifully illustrated and full color, but its story left me wanting. It felt like it tried to do too much in too few pages: there's a hotel, portals leading to three different universes, magic, aliens, legendary armor, a quest to find a missing family member, adoption, etc, and I never connected to the characters like I had hoped.

Portals! Space pirates! Wizards! Woohoo!

After my initial read I gave this graphic novel 4 stars. I enjoyed it more when I reread it yesterday and got even more out of the story during today’s third read. It has mystery, adventure and heart, plus there’s a badass granny!

Charlotte is the newest member of the Dare family. She goes with Darwin, who has a female rat called Donut, and Olive, who identifies as queer and loves organising, to Mamá Lupe’s hotel in Mexico for the summer.

Mamá Lupe has warned them to stay out of her office but these are three kids spending their summer cleaning rooms in a hotel; naturally the allure of the forbidden is too interesting to ignore. Soon they learn that this isn’t an ordinary hotel and Mamá Lupe is not your typical granny.

There are hidden worlds to explore and between them, these adopted siblings meet wizards, space pirates and cuddlemuffins. I adored Sunny the Cuddlemuffin! Along the way Charlotte learns about belonging and family, and what home really means.

I loved how Claudia Aguirre brought Terry Blas’ story to life, with plenty of detail and vibrant colours. The Land of the Dead was always going to be my favourite portal destination but I enjoyed them all. I did Google some Spanish to figure out some small sections of dialogue but I would have still known what was happening if I hadn’t.

I could easily keep rereading this story and I would happily visit other portals with these kids if there was a sequel. Thank you so much to NetGalley and KaBOOM!, an imprint of BOOM! Studios, for granting my wish to read this graphic novel.

This is a comic about family and forgiveness with lots of action. It is middle grade friendly and features three children and focus on one who was recently adopted and feels like she does not belong. Helping their grandmother clean an old hotel, they accidently open a portal to other worlds and adventure ensues and they try to help find their grandfather. The characters are well drawn and quirky but are all very superficial and due to the length of the comic, emotions and decisions occur very quickly, making them feel less significant. Still, great art and a fun plot and would recommend this to any middle school or older reader interested in a quick read.

I really wanted to like this one, and I think a lot of people will. It just wasn't for me. The artwork seemed a little flat to me. There was also a lot of characters and a lot of switching location which kept me from getting sucked into the story. I think other readers will definitely enjoy it.

Really adorable middle grade graphic novel with heartwarming themes and a magical plot. Highly recommend for younger readers looking for a fun, quick read.

Absolutely charming book! Latinx fantasy for middle graders? Yes, please. Can't wait to share it with friends.

Well, this is one of BOOM!'s agitated LGBT+ comics, where you can guess the author is queer/LGBT+ proactive person from first few pages. Well, that kind of spoils it for me because it's annoying when comics are like "I take a fine story and make it so much LGBT hate free as I can imagine". Which is quite sad, because the story and the universe are very nice (nothing creative, but well composed). It's very similar to Lumberjanes, but at least for a first few books, Lumberjanes wasn't so pushy in this topics. But hey, it's me who dislike when author spoils a good story with pushing his agenda without any finesse. On the other hand, kids could actually enjoy this adventurous story, which is actually not bad. Simple, but good. The art is again Luberjane-ish, kind of KaBoom/Boom Box generic artist style. If you like Lumberjanes in ar or/and style of adventure, where kids with attitude stick their noses where they do not belong and wreak havoc to eventually make everything right, you probably will like Hotel Dare.

Thanks to BOOM! Studios and NetGalley.net to provide the free copy. #HotelDare #NetGalley

Olive doesn't know her Abuela Lupé well, so when she and her adopted siblings Darwin and Charlotte go to help her clean her ramshackle hotel, she hopes to find out more about her, especially why her grandmother and father don't talk much. There is a lot of work to be done, but while cleaning the rooms, the children find a mask. This seems to be a portal to other worlds. Charlotte explores a futuristic space ship, Darwin is plunges into a weird, cartoonish world with a cuddle muffin he names Sunny, and Olive meets up with Brad, a wizard in training in a medieval world. When they eventuall talk to their abuela about it, they find that shortly after Olive's father was born, her husband disappeared, and she is estranged from her son because she spent so much time looking for him. Her daughter also went into the alternate universes to look for her father and found him, but is still having trouble getting him out. Can Olive and her siblings work together to solve the puzzle and retrieve their grandfather?

Strengths: This had a good original story and interesting illustrations. The three different worlds were distinct enough that I never got confused. There was some character development, which is hard to accomplish in many graphic novels. I liked the inclusion of Latinx culture. Olive says at the beginning that she is queer, but this is never developed further.
Weaknesses: Reading an e ARC on my 2011 Nook meant that I had to read this in 4 point font. I apologize for having missed crucial plot points during my struggle! I feel like I missed something crucial about Darwin's and Charlotte's adoption; this felt almost like book two of a series.

What I really think: This is similar to Aldridge's Estranged or Hicks' The Nameless City. Neither one (and fantasy in general, whether novels or graphic novels )circulate very well in my library, so I am debating about this one.

The three Dare kids, all adopted siblings, are visiting their grandmother, Mamá Lupe at her weird old house in Mexico, Hotel Dare. After a few days of hanging out and relaxing, Mamá Lupe puts them to work cleaning the rooms in her huge house with instructions to stay away from her office while she runs to the market. Of course, that’s where they want to explore first after she says that. There, Charlotte, the youngest and newest to the family finds a weird mask with a button she clicks. Later, once the three actually get to cleaning, they all find portals to other worlds in the rooms they are cleaning. Olive goes to a fantasy world where she finds a magician who feels like a reject. Darwin goes to a fantasy cloud world and meets a cute creature called Sunny. Both of them return to the real world after just a little while, but Charlotte remains on the spaceship she found herself on, and when Mamá Lupe finds out she gets very worried. The portals are part of something big, part of buried family secrets, and potentially very dangerous.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I’d like to rate it 2.5, but since GoodReads doesn’t do half stars I’ll round it up. I like the touches of Aztec mythology and the imaginative worlds included. In some ways it is nice to have a self-contained, single volume fantasy adventure, but on the other hand I think the story as a whole suffered a bit from needing to be wrapped up so quickly. Some parts that needed further exploration or more character development felt really rushed (especially things between Xochitl and Mamá Lupe, and Charlotte’s personal growth). I would have liked the story better with more explanation about changes of heart and further character development. I liked the inclusion of dialogue in Spanish without translation. I don’t speak or read Spanish well at all, but I was able to follow along fine and it helped with the atmosphere of the story. Many will like this story for the message about found families and family being a matter of the heart rather than blood, but it almost got emphasized a little too much and tipped over into the preachy/agenda-ish area I felt. But that’s just me. I know many will absolutely love the story for those points. Those looking for a fantasy graphic novel for upper middle grades/young adult readers with diversity representation and a single volume fantasy adventure, or stories with some Aztec influence should like this.

Notes on content [based on the ARC]: No language issues (at least in English). No sex scenes or decency issues. One of the Dare siblings says she is queer; she has no love interest. Some characters in the space world of different alien species are said to be in a married-like relationship and both have female-sounding names. (It also seemed to be hinted the relationship included a third member but that wasn’t super clear.) No displays of affection between anyone beyond a hug. Many characters visit the land of the dead, which may creep some readers out. There are some battles, most of which are magical/fantasy/scifi violence. One being loses an eye with some blood shown but later says it will grow back. Some mental damage of one character but there’s hope that can be cured.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun romp At the start it seemed like a more child friendly version of Locke and Key. However, it is it’s own story, and that is where comparisons stop. This book is about a blended family, and how even broken families can be fixed. Three kids are sent to grandma Lupe’s for the summer. She lives in an old hotel, that has special abilities. Think of it like the door to Narnia, except here, every door opens someplace different. But these worlds are not far apart, and there is a secret to traveling in them. It will take every member of the family to make this trip, this mission, a success. There will be a few fights, a few misunderstandings, but mended hearts will win in the end. A great books for kids or adults.
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Excellent graphic novel that blends time travel, science fiction, fantasy, and Aztec lore while also exploring the nature of families. Suitable for high school, upper middle school, and adult readers. Characters are highly diverse and also explore the concept of adoption/blended families.