I am definitely an outlier on this one. I was so excited for Totally Psychic and felt it was off to a great start. Paloma is the granddaughter of a very famous celebrity psychic whose life is uprooted overnight when her family moves to LA - away from her grandmother, her friends, and everything she knows. To cope with change, Paloma begins giving readings to her classmates at school and attempts to become famous on her own terms. While the overall idea was cute and age appropriate, the execution was not my cup of tea.
What I Liked:
- The overall idea of the novel
- The cover art. Adorable!!
What I Didn’t Like:
- The writing. It was juvenile at best and embarrassing at worst. I read this one right after a string of Kate Milford and Trenton Lee Stuart novels - also written for the exact same age demographic - and there is a clear indication that just because the content is for young audiences, doesn’t mean the writing has to be dumbed down to the point of oblivion. Totally Psychic was riddled with stunted dialogue, unrealistic or overly-simple explanations, and a plethora of exclamation marks
- Everything (seriously EVERYTHING) that happens in this book is wildly unrealistic
- Many themes of the book. Paloma is obviously coping with a lot in some of the worst possible ways. And everyone seems fine with it. Summon bad spirits? WOOPS! Constantly skip school or sneak out? Great! Get into trouble over and over when it can be easily avoided? You bet. While I understand a lot of Paloma’s choices were very age appropriate, she never really learns any lessons big enough to enact change or second thought. For that reason I would never recommend this book to an actual kid.
Overall, I’m super bummed. It seemed like such a cute book and I was so excited for a hippy dippy middle grade! Oh well.
Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher for an early copy of this book.
What I Liked:
- The overall idea of the novel
- The cover art. Adorable!!
What I Didn’t Like:
- The writing. It was juvenile at best and embarrassing at worst. I read this one right after a string of Kate Milford and Trenton Lee Stuart novels - also written for the exact same age demographic - and there is a clear indication that just because the content is for young audiences, doesn’t mean the writing has to be dumbed down to the point of oblivion. Totally Psychic was riddled with stunted dialogue, unrealistic or overly-simple explanations, and a plethora of exclamation marks
- Everything (seriously EVERYTHING) that happens in this book is wildly unrealistic
- Many themes of the book. Paloma is obviously coping with a lot in some of the worst possible ways. And everyone seems fine with it. Summon bad spirits? WOOPS! Constantly skip school or sneak out? Great! Get into trouble over and over when it can be easily avoided? You bet. While I understand a lot of Paloma’s choices were very age appropriate, she never really learns any lessons big enough to enact change or second thought. For that reason I would never recommend this book to an actual kid.
Overall, I’m super bummed. It seemed like such a cute book and I was so excited for a hippy dippy middle grade! Oh well.
Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher for an early copy of this book.