The Spindlers

Author: Lauren Oliver
Goodreads Rating: 3.75
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages: 256
Reviewed by: Nicole

I got this book at BEA12. This book is a middle grade read.

Looking across the breakfast table one morning, twelve-year-old Liza feels dread wash over her. Although her younger brother, Patrick, appears the same, Liza knows that he is actually quite different. She is certain that the spindlers-evil, spiderlike beings-came during the night and stole his soul. And Liza is also certain that she is the only one who can rescue him.
Armed with little more than her wits and a huge talking rat for a guide, Liza descends into the dark and ominous underground to save Patrick's soul. Her quest is far from easy, and the road to the spindlers' nests is riddled with danger. She must brave tree snakes, the Court of Stones, and shape-shifting serpents before facing her greatest challenge in the spindlers' lair, where more than just Patrick's soul is at stake.

I felt that this Middle Grade book was super cute. Not only that, but it was also a really quick read, all in all it took me at most an hour and a half to read this book cover to cover. I loved diving into this new world that Oliver created. Granted it was hard to go fully in depth with it, but it was still enough detail to fully understand this world.

I loved how erie it was when Patrick was a different boy, how even as a reader you could tell something was off in the way that he was acting and speaking. That it was Liza's first instinct to go save her brother was brave and adorable. Her journey was what every parable teaches should be, that its about the journey and not the destination. I mean, it was also really important for her to save her brother, but this was also about her getting to him.

I really loved all the different characters and types of creatures that existed in this world. Like the Spindlers and how they were spiders, and how there were oversized rats and and these shadow creatures that seemed to be these shadows that helped to keep your dreams. Those were totally my favorite.

This book was literally the quickest read ever, all in all it took me about an hour to read this book, including getting into my pool and out of it. The only thing that I regret is that there wasn't more development of this world. There was so much that could have been explored that wasn't, but then again, I can't expect that much depth to go into a middle grade book.

I'm hoping that The Spindlers is so wildly popular that Oliver will have to release a companion that tells us more about this crazy world.