Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: Creepy Kid by Caleb Roehrig

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, Paranormal, , , , ,
Creepy Kid by Caleb Roehrig

Creepy Kid
Caleb Roehrig
HarperCollins
Published August 25, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Creepy Kid

A hilariously creepy middle grade novel from award-winning author Caleb Roehrig! Poe has spent his whole life wishing he could meet a ghost, but when he moves into a real-life haunted house, he discovers that communing with the other side might be a little more than he bargained for.

Twelve-year-old Edgar Alden, also known as “Poe,” has always been an outcast. Obsessed with the macabre, he’s never remotely hit it off with other kids. Only Grandma ever really understood his love for the supernatural, but when she dies and his parents move into a dilapidated house on the other side of town, things for Poe quickly go from bad to worse.

You see, Poe has a roommate. A dead one. A 12-year-old ghost named Violet, who’s been stuck haunting Poe’s room for longer than she can remember. Violet is territorial, kind of annoying, and tethered to the human world by her doll, Baby Jessica.

But Poe quickly discovers that Violet isn’t the only spirit haunting his house. There’s a vengeful, violent entity in his basement. And it’s up to Poe to find a way to help them both cross to the other side.

Creepy Kid is a heartfelt but page-turning exploration of grief, moving on, and finding one’s place in the world—sure to make middle grade readers laugh, cry, and wonder about the mysteries that might lie on the other side.

My Review

This is the first middle grade novel by Caleb Roehrig that I’ve ever read. I have enjoyed several of his young adult mysteries, though, so my expectations were pretty high going into this one.

One of the things I think he really captures in this story is Poe’s relationship with his grandma. It’s so clear that her death has thrown him for a loop, and he’s struggling with his grief. She understood and celebrated parts of Poe’s personality that no one else did, and he’s really missing that, especially at his new school.

His connection to ghosts was interesting. I liked how integrated that is into the story as a whole. This isn’t strictly about him helping Violet, though that’s kind of where his ghostly adventures begin. It was also nice to see a story featuring a kid with a really specific temperament that doesn’t resolve with him learning to socialize better. He does grow, especially in understanding himself. But he still remains true to himself, even if that means being an oddball that most people don’t understand.

Poe’s close circle broadens a bit, and the story leaves room for a possible unexpected friendship, which makes for an uplifting ending.

I could see readers who enjoyed Ghoul Summer by Tracy Badua liking this one. It’s a good pick if you are looking for a grumpy narrator who must help ghosts find peace.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None

Spiritual Content
Some characters are ghosts. Poe learns that he can see and interact with them.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of bullying.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Leak by Kate Reed Petty

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , , ,

The Leak
Kate Reed Petty
Illustrated by Andrea Bell
First Second
Published March 16, 2021

Amazon | Goodreads

About The Leak

In this middle-grade graphic novel, Ruth, a young journalist, is determined to uncover a secret that threatens her town.

Ruth Keller is brash and precocious; she argues with her dentist, her parents, and her teachers. So, when she discovers a strange black slime in the man-made lake of her suburban neighborhood, she decides to investigate. Fortified by the encouragement of those around her, Ruth seeks the truth at all costs, even if it means taking on the rich local country club owner, who she believes is responsible for the pollution.

Between the teasing of former friends, and a sudden viral spotlight, Ruth discovers how difficult it is for a journalist to take a stand for what’s right in the face of critique and controversy.

My Review

The fact that this book was inspired by the Flint water crisis intrigued me. My daughter picked up this book at the library and really wanted me to read it, so that also helped. Ha!

Ruth is a middle school student and an aspiring journalist. She writes her own newsletter, which had only a few friends and family members as subscribers at first. As she develops her skills as a journalist, her readership grows. An older journalist mentors her, encouraging Ruth to keep her personal biases out of her writing, to gather important research, and to ask questions rather than lob accusations.

In the midst of this adventure, the girls at school pressure Ruth about a boy she likes. They push her to define their relationship, to kiss him, and to prove that the two are dating. At first, Ruth is not interested in changing who she is or what she wants to gain the approval of these girls. She doesn’t always make the best choices in response to the pressure (which seems pretty realistic to me), but she ultimately strives to be true to herself and honor her values.

Give this book to aspiring journalists, young readers interested in ecology, or high achievers who march to the beat of their own drums.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 9 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Reference to a graffiti drawing of male anatomy.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Some of Ruth’s friends pressure her to show more interest in a boy than she feels, so he doesn’t “lose interest” in her.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed this book from my public library. All opinions are my own.

Review: My Killer Family Reunion by Dinesh Thiru

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My Killer Family Reunion
Dinesh Thiru
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published August 11, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About My Killer Family Reunion

Knives Out meets Never Have I Ever in this hilarious and twisty young adult mystery-comedy about an Indian American teen whose family reunion at a lavish manor falls into chaos after her grandma is attacked.

Nothings brings family together like attempted murder.

There are three things Jayshree Devi can count on happening at her annual family 1) her cousins will forget she exists, 2) her aunts will try to set her up, and 3) her uncles will get into a fight. What she doesn’t expect? An accident that lands her grandmother in a coma, throwing the family—and their matriarch’s sizeable fortune—into chaos.

When Jay discovers Grand Mom’s “accident” might not have been so accidental after all, she’ll have to dig through decades of secrets to find the truth. With the help of her (annoyingly perky) cousins and one of their (annoyingly hot) friends, Jay finds herself knee-deep in a mystery that’s even more tangled than her family tree.

But the closer Jay gets to answers, the closer she gets to finding her place amongst the relatives who once felt so distant. With Grand Mom’s life and fortune hanging in the balance, can Jay save her family and maybe hook up with a hottie while she’s at it?

My Review

I like that this story is a mystery set on finding the person trying to kill someone before the would-be-murderer actually succeeds. Not only did it keep the tension in the story high (because Grand Mom’s life remained in danger), it also kept the mood a bit lighter. It fed into the high drama and dark humor of Jay’s family, too.

The book has a large cast of characters. I’m not sure I was keeping some of the peripheral cousins or aunts and uncles straight in my head, but for the most part, it didn’t seem to matter. There’s a helpful graphic showing the family tree in the front of the book, too. That helps with keeping all the connections sorted correctly.

The balance between the mystery and romance elements is nicely done here. The romance is more of a minor plot thread. Sometimes several scenes pass without Jay really thinking about Hernando, but when the two cross paths, there’s loads of blushing and awkward flirting to enjoy. I found that to be a lot of fun.

The tension ratchets up a lot in the last few chapters of the book. I’d started to wonder if Jay and her cousins were imagining things. Just then, the story started to get really wild.

All in all, this is a really upbeat, fun summer mystery about a big family with a dark sense of humor and lots of secrets. I’m adding the author’s debut novel to my reading list, and I’ll be on the lookout for his next book, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
List.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Jay’s dad and some of her other family members encourage her to pray and practice Hinduism. Jay at first rejects the idea, but later realizes that she’s made some unfair assumption about her family’s faith practice.

Violent Content
Atruck nearly runs over a woman, leaving her injured and in the hospital. A man slaps a woman in front of the whole family. This is treated as a domestic violence incident and the famiy supports the woman and the couple’s children. Someone tries to arrange for a person to be treated with antibiotics they’re allergic to. Someone manipulates and tries to control other family members. Someone uses a gun to threaten and hit another person. Drivers use vehicles to ram one another. A trio kidnaps someone, tying them up.

Someone makes homophobic comments. Other characters condemn the behavior. The family members all make dark jokes about killing Grand Mom.

Drug Content
References to teen drinking.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Ross

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The Escape Game
Marissa Meyer and Tamara Ross
Publisher
Published April 7, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Escape Game

It’s all fun and games until someone ends up dead.

Six months ago, season four of The Escape Game ended in horror when contestant Alicia Angelos was found murdered on set.

Now season five is underway, and new contestants are ready to put their skills to the test solving the show’s trickiest escape rooms. There’s Adi, the cryptographer; Carter, the math whiz; Beck, the wannabe game master, and . . . Sierra Angelos, the girl who got away with her sister’s murder. Or so everyone believes.

But Sierra’s not just here to win. She’s here for justice.

When the contestants begin uncovering clues that hint at the identity of Alicia’s true killer, it becomes clear that the stakes aren’t high in this competition, they’re deadly. If these teens want to win—and survive—the game, they must solve the biggest mystery of who killed Alicia Angelos?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer and rising star Tamara Moss comes a twisty thrill-ride, filled with sabotage, betrayal, and puzzles to die for.

My Review

I’ve read several novels that tried to capture the sense of reality TV. This one really captures the production side of the process. The characters face situations manipulated by producers or watch edited recordings of themselves that spin a specific narrative.

The obstacles inside and outside the escape rooms create a bond between Sierra, Carter, Beck, and Adi. They start off as reluctant allies, but the story shows them grow together into a cohesive team. Each of them narrates different scenes, revealing secrets and showing how they view the other players.

The authors did a great job translating the escape room experience into text. Doing an escape room is such an immersive experience. Before reading this book, I wasn’t sure how it would translate to the page, but I think it really works. I also loved the way the escape room mechanics were woven together with the clues to solve the murder mystery.

I can definitely see reality TV fans and murder mystery fans alike devouring this book. It was a really fun read packed with great characters and unforgettable moments.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to a sexual relationship between an adult and a teenager. (Not shown on scene.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to murder. Someone leaves a bovine heart in a refrigerator with a threatening note. Someone traps characters in a dangerous situation. Characters discover the dead bodies of murder victims.

Drug Content
Someone spikes a teen girl’s drink, making her appear drunk. Poisoned wine leaves another character dead.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

MMGM Review: Little Monsters by Máire Roche

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Little Monsters
Máire Roche
Aladdin
Published August 18, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Little Monsters

In this modern supernatural middle grade retelling of the beloved classic Little Women, the March sisters have a monstrous secret Meg will do anything to protect—especially with another beast lurking in the woods threatening to expose them.

Meg March and her three sisters are monsters. No, really. Meg has teeth that are a little too sharp. Jo gets furry under the full moon. Beth goes night flying on wings that are impossible to hide under her sweaters. And Amy? Well, don’t let her near a body of water or she’ll start sprouting her mermaid’s tail.

Meg is sure their foster mom, Marmee, wouldn’t like any of this if she knew. And Jo’s best friend Laurie, the nice boy next door, would run screaming. To make matters worse, Meg’s small town outside of Salem is on edge. A vicious beast has been spotted in the forest, and Farmer Bhaer believes it’s responsible for his missing chickens. Meg is sure to be blamed if anyone realizes she’s a monster in disguise. And the closer it gets to Halloween, the surer the town is that something evil is hiding in the forest.

Meg doesn’t always remember what she gets up to at night, and sometimes, she wakes alone in a mossy part of the forest and has to find her way back. With John Brooke determined to find out just what Meg is hiding and locals working to uncover the monsters in their midst, Meg must find the culprit herself—or risk losing the little home she’s found with her sisters.

My Review

I only read Little Women for the first time a few years ago, but I loved it. Since then, I’ve been really excited to see the ways in which authors reimagine the story or draw inspiration from it for new books. While this one lifts some characters and relationships from the original story, the plot is entirely new.

Here, the four March sisters are in foster care, and Meg is the primary narrator. She works hard to keep her sisters out of trouble and make sure the girls don’t need anything, because needing things is a quick path to being rehomed with a new foster family. This time, the girls are living with Marmee, and she’s different than their previous foster parents. She notices even the needs that Meg tries to keep hidden. At first, this makes Meg even more anxious. Gradually, though, her relationship with Marmee changes, and her relationships with her sisters evolve as well.

I love that the story explores the theme about what a monster truly is. Some of the characters in the story literally transform, growing long teeth and vicious claws, while others bully or terrorize with their words.

The references to Little Women mostly come in the form of the characters and relationships between them. For instance, Jo and Laurie are still best friends. Meg and John Brooke seem to have a potential spark for romance, though it’s not deeply explored here. But the story also stands on its own. Readers who had never read the original will still understand what’s happening, and the paranormal elements make this a perfect read for the fall season.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
There are a couple of characters who may have crushes on each other. It never becomes the focus of the story.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have supernatural abilities or shapeshift in some way.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to monsters destroying property and injuring someone. The story also explores what makes someone a monster. Is a monster determined by its appearance or its behavior?

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle.

Review: Rolls and Rivalry by Kristy Boyce

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Rolls and Rivalry (Gaming and Romance #3)
Kristy Boyce
Delacorte Romance
Published May 5, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Rolls and Rivalry

Roll the dice, strike up the band, and get ready for a swoon-worthy summer! A charming gaming romance that blends the magic of D&D with the camaraderie of band camp—from the bestselling author of Dating and Dragons!

Questing for love . . .

Hazel Buchanan has her senior year mapped out: Win respect as color guard captain, kick off her first D&D campaign, and steer clear of distractions. But her plan takes a critical hit when Max—her former best friend and longtime crush—returns to town with drumsticks in hand and an unexplained chip on his shoulder.

Hazel and Max can’t help bickering every time they’re together, and thanks to meddling parents, he’s invading her D&D game too. As Dungeon Master, she’s ready to shut him down, but D&D has a way of bringing people together like nothing else. Is this rivalry masking something more? With dice rolling and emotions spinning, Hazel might be in for more than she planned . . .

My Review

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, so I absolutely had to read this one. Each of the books in the series is pretty self-contained, so you could start with this one or go back to book one and enjoy them all in the order they were published. This one does have a brief cameo of a couple from book two.

All the marching band content was a lot of fun in this book. I like the way that the D&D elements and band elements intertwined. For example, Hazel invites her team to create D&D characters as a team-building exercise. It ends up becoming a long-running experience for the team, which really showcases the power of inside jokes and shared memories.

Having both D&D and marching band could have proved too many elements to bring together, but I think that the author did a great job balancing those things with the romance.

This is another book that draws on the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers trope, too. I liked getting to see Hazel and Max reconnect. I was on the edge of my seat as we learned why their friendship frayed in the first place and watched them navigate the obstacles that drove them apart.

At the beginning, I worried that the pranking was going to be too much for me. The percussion section and the color guard have an ongoing rivalry that gets kind of ugly. Like, not thriller-level ugly, but the percussionists do some pretty mean stuff to Hazel’s team. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to like Max after some of that.

The story does address the meanness, and Max takes steps to repair his relationship with Hazel and earn back her trust. Ultimately, I felt good about that because it felt like there was course correction, not just shrugging and insisting the pranks were funny.

All in all, I enjoyed the book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very rarely.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some brief instances of bullying and mean pranks.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.