Book Review: Waste of Space by Stuart Gibbs (Moon Base Alpha #3)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Creative mystery in a great location

Cons: Pacing at one point in the middle

The Bottom Line:

Attempt to poison

In case with many suspects

Creative and fun

Can Dash Find the Right Suspect?

I love a good mystery no matter who the target audience is.  That’s why I grab up Stuart Gibbs’ books as fast as he can write them.  He may write for middle graders, but his mysteries are always fantastic, and his settings are creative.  Or, in the case of the Moon Base Alpha series, I guess I could call them out of this world.  Waste of Space may be bringing this series to a close, but it goes out with a bang.

As this book opens, Moon Base Alpha has been open for eight months now, and everyone is going a little stir crazy.  This is especially true for thirteen-year-old Dashiell Gibson.  However, the true terror of the base is the Sjoberg family.  They paid money to come for several months as tourists, and they’ve been making life extremely difficult for everyone ever since they arrived

So it isn’t super surprising when someone attempts to poison Lars Sjoberg, the father and by far the worst member of the family.  In fact, the list of suspects includes every single person on the base.  Complicating matters, however, is how the person even got the poison in the base in the first place.  While Dashiell has no interest in getting involved, the base’s commander strong arms him into following up on some leads.  Will he piece it together?

Any fan of the series knows that the Sjoberg family makes a great target, and I was thrilled to see them taking center stage in this book.  The questions this mystery raises are fantastic, and I loved seeing how Dashiell pieced it all together by the end.  I did think the book slowed down a little in the middle for a series long sub-plot, but that was a minor complaint.

Meanwhile, the characters continue to be wonderful.  Naturally, we have a limited number of characters here, and we’ve seen them in previous books, so it was all about seeing how characters interact here.  There are some very fun moments for most of the characters in this book.  Kids will absolutely enjoy these scenes; I know I did.

Since this is the final book in the series, Stuart Gibbs had a chance to wrap up some on going storylines.  Despite my complaint earlier about what the meant for the pacing, I am confident that fans will be happy with the resolutions we get here.

So, if you are looking for something different and completely enjoyable, I highly recommend Waste of Space.  No matter your age, you’ll find the mystery is great and the book is just plain fun.

This review is part of this week's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday.