Brad About Books: The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver

THE SPINDLERS
Published: October 2, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Format: ARC
Page Count: 256 pages
Source: Publisher

One night when Liza went to bed, Patrick was her chubby, stubby, candy-grubbing and pancake-loving younger brother, who irritated and amused her both, and the next morning, when she woke up, he was not. In fact, he was quite, quite different.

When Liza's brother, Patrick, changes overnight, Liza knows exactly what has happened: The spindlers have gotten to him and stolen his soul.

She knows, too, that she is the only one who can save him.

To rescue Patrick, Liza must go Below, armed with little more than her wits and a broom. There, she uncovers a vast world populated with talking rats, music-loving moles, greedy troglods, and overexcitable nids . . . as well as terrible dangers. But she will face her greatest challenge at the spindlers' nests, where she encounters the evil queen and must pass a series of deadly tests--or else her soul, too, will remain Below forever.

I was really excited to read and review THE SPINDLERS, but I was disappointed by this novel. The writing style didn't captivate me, and I was utterly confused at some parts.

The concept of this novel was very intriguing. And with Lauren Oliver's poetic and wonderful writing style from her previous novels, I knew that I was going to love THE SPINDLERS. And yet I just . . . didn't. The voice of Liza in this novel actually annoyed me some parts. I felt like she complained a lot but posed herself as this strong and defiant girl. I just didn't know what to make of her character.

The world building of Below was superb though. I loved every second of traveling with these characters through the dark and grim place of Below! Oliver did a great job of detailing every speck of this land, and I would love to jump into these pages and journey through this world myself!

But still, THE SPINDLERS had me confused throughout the most of the book. It seemed as if the author threw too many action events at me, and I couldn't keep track with everything that was going on. Lots of twists and turns pop up many times in this book and while some were great and benefitted the story in an excellent way, some were just way too confusing and over-detailed.

But I still did enjoy THE SPINDLERS, just not as much as I hoped I would. And some characters stood out to me -- one being the rat in this novel. This character was sneaky and suspicious --  like a rat, no? -- but had a caring side, which made me fall in love with her character. I will admit that Lauren Oliver can craft a great character!

Overall, THE SPINDLERS did let me down, but I still enjoyed the read. Middle grade fanatics will fall in love with this book, I'm sure though.

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