Greenglass House by Kate Milford

from goodreads

3.5 stars

Today is a sad day. Target is closing their stores in Canada. Now, I try not to buy too much. I am trying to get out of the consumeristic mindset that we seem to be in, but I loved Target. They had some of the neatest things. While the business model and research they did before branching out into Canada was quite flawed and all this could have been avoided, I sure wished they would have tried to change things up and stick it out instead of just cutting and running. I just don't want Wal-marts to paint the scene. Nothing against Wal-mart but I think we have enough of them. Hopefully this means an opportunity for some other company to come in and wow us.

Anyway, sorry for no thought provoking cute anecdotes today. My mind is just consumed with grief over this news... I should be better by tomorrow... hopefully.

Synopsis

Milo is looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas holiday with his family. He gets his homework done and everything. Then one by one, guests come to the hotel, where he and his family live. While this means no quiet vacation it does mean a mystery as there is more going on than what it seems.

My Thoughts

This is a hard one to rate. In some regards this book is a big 5 stars, in others it kind of tanked.

So let's start with things I loved. I loved the setting of this book. The house sounds beautiful. I want to live there, or at least visit for a while. I love the idea of needing a cable car to reach it. That sounds really cool.

I loved some of the folk lore that was created and how every small detail was important. It is nice when there are stories within stories. Especially when they are important to the main story arc and not just added pages.

I liked the mystery. It was neat and fun to try and figure out. Right when you had one thing resolved another thing happened that you had to piece together. That was cool, as it kept you on your toes.

I also liked the surprise twist at the end. It made me rethink everything I had read and look again for the clues that would have showed me that conclusion. I wasn't really expecting it, yet, it worked!

I didn't like the whole role playing game. While I get that Milo's character had more courage or could do different things when he was his role playing character it sometimes made it confusing. I think because I personally am just not into those kinds of games I just didn't get it. Others who are into those kind of games might love this kind of storytelling device. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

It was hard to keep a timeframe in mind for this place as it seemed pretty timeless. You know it is modern day because of modern conveniences etc. Yet other times it seems like it should be more early 20th century. I wished it felt more settled in the time. It was hard to picture people's clothing, or vehicles or other stuff, when the time seemed to flip flop around in it's sense. (Not sure if I am making any sense, but trust me, it was hard to picture.)

Some of the characters where a bit flat to me. They were still interesting, but not as much as I wished.

I also wished we knew more about the community. Why were smugglers so important there, was the town a hidden cove or an important stop on a trade route? Was it a small town, as it seemed to feel, or part of a larger region, which the story also had the feel of. There were sometimes hints and allusions to these answers but nothing concrete, and I found not knowing distracting to the rest of the story. Also, why wouldn't have Milo and Meddy have met before? Was it a big enough area that there were more than one school? It seemed like a town where everyone knew everyone else, but clearly that wasn't the case.

I think I would have enjoyed this book a whole lot more when I was 12. Since I am not 12, I think I wanted more. So, if you have a 12 year old in your life, I highly recommend it . I think they will love it. As an adult reading it, I think you will like it too, but you probably won't have your socks knocked off.