Early Review – Even and Odd by Sarah Beth Durst (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books
Release Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-0358350385
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Even and Odd are sisters who share magic. Lately, though, it seems like that’s the only thing they have in common. Odd doesn’t like magic, and Even practices it every chance she gets, dreaming of the day she’ll be ready to be a hero.
When the hidden border between the mundane world the sisters live in and the magical land they were born in shuts abruptly, the girls are trapped, unable to return home. With the help of a unicorn named Jeremy, they discover a wizard is diverting magic from the border to bolster her own power. Families are cut off from each other on both sides of the border, and an ecological disaster is brewing. But the wizard cares nothing for the calamitous effects her appropriation of magic is having. Someone has to do something to stop her, and Even realizes she can no longer wait until she’s ready: she needs to be a hero now.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this from the author through NetGalley to review.
Story (3/5): This is a decent middle grade story that will appeal to younger readers but not the YA or adult crowd. There is a lot of silly humor here and things are a bit over the top at points. The story moves a bit slow, is a bit simple and is very predictable.
The premise of the story is that Even and Odd need to work together to figure out why the border gates between the normal human world and the magical world are going a bit goofy.
Characters (2/5): Even and Odd were a bit too similar, I confused them a lot. I know Even was supposed to be super enthusiastic about magic and Odd wasn’t; however aside from that there wasn’t enough differentiation between their voices. Many of the characters were pretty stereotypical, one dimensional and kind of over the top.
Setting (3/5): The world-building here was simplistic but okay. Even and Odd live on the border between our world and a magical one, there are gates used to travel between the two worlds that for some reason have become unstable. That’s pretty much it for world-building. It is set during modern day times.
Writing Style (3/5): This is technically perfectly readable and flows fine. I think it’s just meant for a younger audience and as such it’s a very simple, straight-forward story that is a bit boring because of its predictability. I don’t read a ton of middle grade books anymore now that my son is going into high school. I was a big fan of Durst’s “Spark” and “The Stone Girl’s Story” (actually my whole family loved both of those) but this was a bit of a miss for me. I still think some kids will appreciate it.
My Summary (3/5): This was an okay book but definitely one of Durst’s weaker middle grade novels. I would recommend checking out “Spark” and “The Stone Girl’s Story” over this book. It’s not an awful book but it isn’t one that will appeal to a broad age range. If you have a younger kid (8-12 year old) that is a huge Durst fan they might enjoy it.
