Finished reading this with Mallory a week or so ago. Didn't love it. The writing was off-putting for some reason. Just short, abrupt sentences all the time. The story was ok, but the characters were pretty boring and I never had too much of a rooting interest in any of them, other than probably the bird, Trouble, and maybe the small giant, Shim. The story was also largely predictable with Shim's role in the conclusion spelled out well in advance. There are lots of books that follow this one. Not sure if any of those get better, but I am secretly hoping that Mallory doesn't request to have us read any of them because I am fine not pushing forward with this book series.
