I’m coming at this review from the perspective of a bookseller who specializes in middle grade and loves it dearly and I was honestly a bit disappointed in this book. It has a great premise, and great concepts regarding characterization, it just struggles in execution. I know this is a children’s book, but the characters felt very one dimensional and stereotypical, which is not true of many other well crafted middle grade novels I’ve read recently. The mystery was well done and I can see how the series is being set up, but the cheesiness of the characters and feeling like I’d seen all the plot points, characters, and reveals a million times before lost a lot of points for me. The cover also barely tells you anything about what’ll happen inside, and I feel that the look of the characters is so bland despite Cosmina and Raven’s eccentric descriptions, which won’t encourage children to pick up this title at all despite the art being attractive and well done.
There’s also a disconnect between the very out of place instances of Christianity being pushed throughout the book, and the hard science mindset the main character supposedly has. It’s quite jarring to read a middle grade book (which will not be shelved in the religion section of any bookstore or library) about a girl who loves science and dissection and forensics and feel like you’re receiving an awkward sermon at the same time. Sadly this aspect took me completely out of the story multiple times, and never felt like a relevant inclusion. Relevant inclusions (like when they were at church) made sense, but most didn’t and felt like they were from a completely different book narrated by a completely different main character.