TezMillerOz

This is not a bad book. It's firmly 2.5 stars, and whilst in earlier times I would've rounded that up to 3, I'm a grumpy old woman now so I'm rounding it down to 2.

This is a wonderfully unpretentious novel - it doesn't take itself too seriously, and seems presented as an escapist read, and that's fair enough. Still, escapism can be difficult to achieve: It has to be light enough to distract the reader from their personal troubles, but with enough heart to actually connect with the reader. And I didn't connect with Poltergeeks at all.

Admittedly, magic is not my favourite part of urban fantasy, but I figure that's only because I haven't read the kind of magic that would best suit my logical/scientific inclinations. That's no reason for me to blacklist all novels featuring magic, so I am willing to try instead of giving up completely.

And yes, apathy is often a symptom of my mental illness, but I felt pretty good around the time that I read this (and that's continued since then - so far, so good).

So Poltergeeks is squarely middling territory for me: I didn't particular like it, but I didn't particular dislike it, either.

Reportedly these two Poltergeeks books aren't selling as well as the author's self-published adult novels. And I don't really think that has anything to do with this duology being traditionally published (by the now-closed Strange Chemistry) and young adult. Maybe it's just that this book doesn't really appeal.

That said I still plan to read the sequel, Student Bodies. After all, maybe it is my fault for failing to connect with Poltergeeks, and it's only fair to give a second chance.