Stars: 2 out of 5
Pros: Realistic Characters
Cons: Glorifies rule breaking and lying
The Bottom Line:
Ingrid feels need to
Investigate a murder
Which somehow bugged me
Cracked-Up Katie's Murder Lead Ingrid to Danger
Cracked-Up Katie's Murder Lead Ingrid to Danger
Even though I'm an adult, I have been known to still enjoy
things aimed at kid's most of the time. In fact, my favorite movies are often
kid's movies. So, when I started hearing praise about Down the Rabbit Hole, I couldn't
pass it up. Unfortunately, I was ultimate disappointed.
This is a murder mystery aimed at Jr. High aged kids. Set in
a small Connecticut
town, it stars Ingrid Levin-Hill, herself an 8th grader.
Ingrid is just trying to get to soccer practice on time. She
decides to run there instead of wait for her mom, but a wrong turn gets her
lost in the wrong part of town. This leads to a chance encounter with Katie
Kovak - Cracked-Up Katie to the kids in town. Ingrid thinks nothing of it until
she reads in the paper that Katie was murdered that night.
Ingrid knows she was probably the last person to see Katie
alive. But she's afraid of getting into trouble or danger, so she decides to
stay quiet.
Then, to her horror, she discovers that she left her soccer
cleats behind at Katie's house. Sneaking back to get them, she gets herself
into even deeper trouble. Now, the only way out is to find the real killer. Can
she do it?
I have to give this book praise for the characters. They
were great, especially Ingrid. She's a very real thirteen-year-old; she reminds
me of many I know myself. In addition to the mystery, she's dealing with lots
of issues that early teens face including dealing with parents, an obnoxious
older brother, and a mean teacher at school. Her parents do seem well rounded
although I really felt they were overly arbitrary at times. And she even gets a
nemesis you just love to hate.
Additionally, the book was well written. It doesn't talk
down to kids, yet it is written on a level that the target 6th through 9th
graders would be able to follow. I had no problem breezing through it, as I
expected to do.
The problem was the plot. The mystery is put on the back
burner for the first half while various aspects of Ingrid's life are
introduced. This may appeal to kids, but it left me rather bored as I waited
for the story to really get started. Additionally, the killer was fairly
obvious, although I didn't have everything pegged, so I'll let that slide.
Beside, it probably wouldn't be as obvious to kids.
My biggest problem with the book is all the sneaking around,
lying, and rule breaking that Ingrid did. Usually, that doesn't bother me, and
it happens in just about every book I read. This time, it was so blatantly in
your face that it really bothered me. And, usually, it's just once or twice
instead of over and over again. Ingrid continually justifies it to herself, and
that just made it worse for me. I would have been somewhat mollified if she got
in trouble for it, but that didn't even happen.
While the target market will probably enjoy Down the Rabbit Hole more
than I did, I just can't recommend it because of Ingrid's bad behavior.
I accidentally deleted my comment, but long story short, i agree. Ingrid really should have been spanked (or punished) for all she did. I also didn't like the cursing in the book. As well, the threads are established here for things that happened in books 2 & 3 (SPOILER ALERT) Ty (the brother) is on steriods, and the father is having an affair. Things that don't need to be in a YA book! It is sad enough that this happens in real life! The way these things are handled are especially sad
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