Disney After Dark
Kingdom Keepers #1
by Ridley Pearson

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

Due to some fictional technology, five kids whose likenesses were used as holographic hosts in the Magic Kingdom start “crossing over” and waking up as their holographic selves, in the park, when they sleep at night. They find out that various characters from different Disney media have started coming to life and are threatening the park. Worse yet, if they grow stronger, they might threaten the world outside of the park. And only the five hosts can stop them.

I think someone’s status as a Disney buff probably greatly affects their enjoyment of this book, for better or for worse. I’ve only been to Disney World once, many years ago, and I haven’t actually watched very many of the classic Disney cartoons. If there was anything about this book that was relying on the reader to know more about either of those things, it may have affected my understanding or enjoyment of the book. Even with that limitation, the premise of the book captured my attention. I may not know the park well, but I can imagine the excitement of wandering a magical park after hours.

However, it fell short in execution. The book just wasn’t written all that well in general. The dialog is often stilted, and the prose is clunky and even non-sensical at times. There are continuity issues, even within a single page. And the characterization is lacking. Any book with this many characters working together to defeat the villain(s) has a heavier burden making sure that the different characters don’t blend together and that there is at least some development for each. In this case, basically none of the characters were developed, and for the most part, I couldn’t tell the four kids that weren’t the MC apart.

By the time I read this first book, my husband had already gotten almost the entire rest of the series for me, as we’ve seen the books at thrift stores and such. For that reason, I had more desire than even normal to really like this book, and so I was disappointed that it was mediocre at best. However, since I do own most of the series, and I can see that the rating on Goodreads goes up a little with each book, I will continue on in the hopes that it gets better. In the meantime, I wouldn’t really recommend this book to anyone, but if it does sound intriguing to you, certainly check out other reviews at the link below, as others have liked it more than I did (and others liked it less).

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!