Have you ever thought you wanted to do one thing but your parents had different ideas? Ann Pickersgill is not a happy twelve-year-old. She had plans with her friends over summer, but instead, her parents went on their second honeymoon, leaving Ann with Grandma Bev. Ann thinks it’s going to be boring. She doesn’t have anything in common with her grandmother. Grandma Bev is still a hippie from the 1960’s. “Grandma Bev appeared … wearing a pair of bell bottom jeans and a white t-shirt covered with peace symbols. An ancient fringe shoulder bag dangled from one shoulder and a pair of tiny rectangular wire-framed sunglasses with purple lenses rested on the bridge of her nose.”

Ann thinks Grandma is imagining things when she claims that many ‘lost cat’ signs posted in their community of Thornhill indicate they are being captured by ‘visitors from other planets.’ Maybe Grandma Bev has read too many of those old timey detective novels. But, once they get to the library and Ann sees a complete wall of posters reporting missing cats, she begins to think something, if not aliens, is definitely amiss.

I have to admit, I’d forgotten the synopsis when I first started reading and thought it was a cozy mystery. Well, it is of sorts, but it is actually written for Middle Grade. Even still, I really enjoyed the comradery that developed between Ann and Grandma Bev. I liked the character of Ann, our protagonist, but I LOVED Grandma Bev and her quirky nature. I do, however, feel that middle graders will have a bit of trouble with many of the words, phrases, and band names common to the 1960’s era. Rating: 4 out of 5.

 

This is not a bad book. It's firmly 2.5 stars, and whilst in earlier times I would've rounded that up to 3, I'm a grumpy old woman now so I'm rounding it down to 2.

This is a wonderfully unpretentious novel - it doesn't take itself too seriously, and seems presented as an escapist read, and that's fair enough. Still, escapism can be difficult to achieve: It has to be light enough to distract the reader from their personal troubles, but with enough heart to actually connect with the reader. And I didn't connect with Poltergeeks at all.

Admittedly, magic is not my favourite part of urban fantasy, but I figure that's only because I haven't read the kind of magic that would best suit my logical/scientific inclinations. That's no reason for me to blacklist all novels featuring magic, so I am willing to try instead of giving up completely.

And yes, apathy is often a symptom of my mental illness, but I felt pretty good around the time that I read this (and that's continued since then - so far, so good).

So Poltergeeks is squarely middling territory for me: I didn't particular like it, but I didn't particular dislike it, either.

Reportedly these two Poltergeeks books aren't selling as well as the author's self-published adult novels. And I don't really think that has anything to do with this duology being traditionally published (by the now-closed Strange Chemistry) and young adult. Maybe it's just that this book doesn't really appeal.

That said I still plan to read the sequel, Student Bodies. After all, maybe it is my fault for failing to connect with Poltergeeks, and it's only fair to give a second chance.

DNF'd within a couple of pages. I knew instinctively that this was a male author and this type of author is the reason I tend to be wary of male authors. He kinda took the show don't tell rule and stamped on it, leaving the whole story feel like an unedited self published work and me feeling like I was reading a story too young for me. And I agree with something someone once said - if you feel too old for a story, there's a fault with writing there.

I have this thing with sequels. Either I loved the first book and the second book, or I loved the first book and thought the second book was just... meh. STUDENT BODIES, though, is one of those cases that the sequel really surprised me - in a good way!

One of the reasons POLTERGEEKS didn't make it into my absolute favorites list was because it seemed to... happy, I suppose, for me. That's alright with me - after all, I still enjoyed the plot - but it's not my absolute favorite because it's still your classic hero story, with your brave heroine, sidekicks and mostly-happily-ever-after. Again, nothing particularly wrong with that. But not exactly too original or dark either, which is why the first book was something I'd still recommend to middle grade readers.

What I liked about STUDENT BODIES, though, is that it really goes into darker and more "mature" subjects. You still have that fantastical spell chanting and potion making - just more things that I thought made it more of a YA novel. In case you couldn't tell from the blurb, Julie now has a boyfriend, Marcus, and has to deal with how to balance that with her duties as a Shadowcull and her parent. While I'm sure none of us have her powers, I'm sure we could all relate to Julie's frustration at times, which I didn't see in the last book. Other than that, there are heavier themes about bullying, though that still seemed a bit middle-grade to me (think: wedgies and dumpsters).

On that note, I'm still in love with Julie's voice! It has just the right amount of sass and smarts in it, and just a bit of teenage angst for realistic-ness. On the other hand, she’s still the bad-ass, magic-wielding heroine. Cumming’s balance of the two was great, and I really enjoyed her character! 

Other than Julie, my favorite part of the book was Twyla! They’re quite different characters, but at the same time, they’re also very similar in their drive to investigate. I loved how they worked together as a team, so hopefully we see more of them in the next book! At the same time, though, I also felt that Marcus’s character wasn’t as enjoyable. Maybe it’s because of the romance, or because of Twyla’s addition, but I didn’t really feel his pull as much. 

Nonetheless, STUDENT BODIES is a fun and quick sequel that I’d easily recommend! In fact, even if you felt like POLTERGEEKS was a bit too happy or juvenile, I still feel as if STUDENT BODIES is an improvement from the first. Otherwise, fans of the series or urban fantasy magic definitely should check this series out! (:

* A free review copy of this book was provided for the blog tour. This did not affect my opinion of the book.

Pre-review:

What an.... interesting title. Can't wait to see what comes next though!