Ridley Pearson

Book Review: Disney in Shadow

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Disney in Shadow
Kingdom Keepers #3
by Ridley Pearson

My rating: 1.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

With their mentor Wayne missing, the five DHIs will risk everything to track him down. 

I just do not understand how these books keep being published and how they get such high ratings. The first two books were okay, but they had major issues. This book just seems to amplify those issues. The plot is weak and super bloated, the characters have little in the way of personalities beyond some clichés, and very little of interest happens in 500+ pages. A conversation supposedly from book 1 is called back to here, and I’m 99% certain that conversation never happened, which means the author was trying to shore up the weak premise set forth early in the series. The stakes don’t seem all that high, since the kids are running/hiding from human security people and dodging parental questions as much as anything else. Though that reminds me—one thing I did appreciate about this book was the involvement of parents. But it was a tiny bright spot comparatively.

I only made it to the 3rd book because I own all but one of the series, but that’s not enough to keep me going now. I’m not even remotely interested in the greater story here, and I certainly can’t recommend the book or series to anyone else. But it does have some good reviews, probably more from the target audience of pre-teens/young teens, so if the book or series sounds interesting to you, click the link below to read some of those good reviews.

Find out more about Disney in Shadow

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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!

Book Review: Disney at Dawn

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Disney at Dawn
Kingdom Keepers #2
by Ridley Pearson

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Disney After Dark.

After the events of the previous book, the DHIs are back online, and the kids they’re patterned after are part of a huge celebration at Magic Kingdom. But Maleficent wasn’t as secure as they’d thought, and now she’s made Animal Kingdoms a wilder place to be. With a new threat of being locked up if they fall asleep and cross over into their holographic forms, the five hosts have to stay awake long enough to free Jez, who has been captured by the Overtakers.

Like its predecessor, this book is not terrible but not great. Again I assume that if I was a major Disney World buff, I would enjoy this book more…or maybe I’d enjoy it less, since some reviews mention incorrect descriptions of the parks. But I have no real ties to Disney, so I wasn’t able to go along for the magical ride as intended. Instead, I had to rely on the story itself. The plot is nothing unexpected and the characters are perhaps even more static and interchangeable than they were in the first book. I have to give this series credit for being inventive in the general premise and fantastical world, but the execution continues to fall short. I will keep reading the series for now, because I can see what it’s trying to be and appreciate that idea. 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.

Find out more about Disney at Dawn

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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!

Book Review: Disney After Dark

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

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).

Find out more about Disney After Dark

See what I’m reading next.

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