By: Melissa de la Cruz
Libby audiobook 7 hours
Read by: Marni Penning
Published: 2023
Genre: YA mystery, fantasy
Spoilers ahead, so stop now if you don't want the ending "ruined." . . .
The vocal work is great. The target audience is the tween kids who are heading into or already into sixth grade. I should call it "kid lit" instead of YA, but I haven't been making that distinction in my blog so I'll leave it as is.
This started out with a premise similar to books like the Mysterious Benedict Society and so many others . . . an extraordinary group of sixth graders have tested well enough to be invited to a seminar weekend at Octagon Valley by the "uber famous multimillionaire, genius, recluse Onassander Octagon."
The kids are interesting enough - Edwin (small for his age, photographic memory), Julie (quiet, violinist, NYC), Little Kimmy (LA, rapper), Anton (gamer), Dilip (Indian American, surfer), TingTing (Filipino, pushy mom), Harold Postman Jr. VIII (rich brat whose family included the "junior" and the number of which junior . . .), and Maureen (snotty girl from NYC with two dads who have a Tesla model X).
Then we get Daphne the siren (she's really real), the multiverse, a destroyed reality, life-threatening situations, etc.
Sigh. It just gets worse and worse as it goes on. Turns out the kids are actually aliens with latent powers and they have been recruited to save "impossibilium," a new element that can save the world. One of the "octos" is actually on the side of YAK (an acronym? we don't know). This is clearly book one in a new series. I could easily "sell" this book to young readers with active imaginations, but I personally did not like it.
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