Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

If you liked Harry Potter or Series of Unfortunate Events, then you'll enjoy this book too. It starts off dark with mystery, but not so much that it takes away from the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Ok, I was not in the right head-space for this book at this time. This is not one I would have considered recommending before I had a conversation with a customer at my store.

She and my Boss and I were all discussing Harry Potter and the appropriate age-range for reading the series, especially the later books that are much darker. She had let her sons read them at a much younger age than most and many people had asked her with some incredulity WHY she let her young sons read the darker books where characters die. Her husband, the father of her sons, had died when the Harry Potter books had come out. Her boys LIVED dark. She felt that having lived that, they could handle and empathize with the Harry Potter books to some degree and didn't try to stop them from reading the later books so long as it didn't frustrate their reading level.

I was gob-smacked. I personally hate when books seem to be dark, just to pile the misery on the MCs, I read to escape real life, but there are others out there with whom that misery might resonate, and it might even help them to see a fictional character going through something similar and come out ok on the other side.

So, that is where I am coming from when viewing this book. It starts out too dark for me, but it might be just what the right reader needs, so I am not negative towards the book itself, it just doesn't work for me because I am not there right now.

I DNF'd at 11% due to the darkness. It is written well, the characters felt real and the storyline sounded interesting, but it just wasn't for me at this time. This would be one that I would recommend to those who like darker themes in their reading, such as a beloved adult dying, the young MC being treated like garbage by their parents, bullying in school, etc.

2, it's not for me but I am sure it is for many others and that I just read it wrong, stars.

I found this to be quirky and the perfect way for kids to enjoy a fantastical story. As an adult, even I couldn't put this down. Rose faces so many weird and zaney characters in this, and I think children will eat this story up.