Howdy Book Lovers!

How you doin? Pride in KC is this weekend, so I’m going to enjoy meeting up with friends to start off this month’s festivities. Also, this blog has been super busy this week, so I feel like a quick breather might be needed.

Anywho, it’s book review time!

This time I read The Curse of Eelgrass Bog by Mary Averling.

This is a recent release from this year and Mary’s debut novel. When I saw the cover and read the blurb I absolutely had to give it a try, and luckily my library had a copy available!

Alright, let’s dig right into this review!

Blurb

Dark secrets and unnatural magic abound when a twelve-year-old girl ventures into a bog full of monsters to break a mysterious curse.

Nothing about Kess Pedrock’s life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon’s head in a jar named Shrunken Jim).

But things get even stranger than usual when Kess meets Lilou Starling, the new girl in town. Lilou comes to Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse—and the only clue she has leads straight into the center of Eelgrass Bog.

Everyone knows the bog is full of witches, demons, and possibly worse, but Kess and Lilou are determined not to let that stop them. As they investigate the mystery and uncover long-buried secrets, Kess begins to realize that the curse might hit closer to home than she’d ever expected, and she’ll have to summon all her courage to find a way to break it before it’s too late.

GoodReads

Amazon

***Brief disclosure***

I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

I’m absolutely gob smacked at how great this MG tale of magic, curses, and friendship was!

In this debut novel we follow twelve-year old Kess. Her family runs a museum of unnatural things that is sometimes sourced through nearby Eelgrass bog. Kess’s parents have been gone on a trip to Antarctica, leaving her bossy brother Oliver in charge. But Kess aches for a friend to soothe her loneliness, and when she crosses paths with a young girl named Lilou, she unknowingly embarks on a journey of magic, secrets, and self-discovery.

Kess is a character you instantly love. She’s kind, sensitive, and caring, but she’s got something of an issue with her memory. Recollections tend to evade her, so she often feels lost and alone. Shrunken Jim is Kess’s devoted sidekick, and I loved him to pieces! He was super supportive of Kess and her struggles and he’s such a unique character. You see, he’s a demon shrunken head stuck in a jar that communicates telepathically. Who said all demons are bad?

Other characters like Oliver and Lilou really jumped off the page too.

The setting was really great and spooky without being too scary for younger readers. I would definitely be a bit hesitant to enter Eelgrass bog!

Plotwise, this was a fantasy adventure that moved at a moderate pace and is a story you can blaze through if you love it like I did. There were some great themes here of embracing each other’s differences and found family that I think many will resonate with. It definitely warmed my heart as I plodded along.

This was an unforgettable experience, and I can’t wait to read more from this author. Definitely pick this one up!

That’s a Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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