Synopsis: Welcome to Pleasant Grove, a quiet small town where neighbour helps neighbour and doors are left unlocked at night-an unspoiled paradise with one peculiar feature: It's enclosed by a glass dome.
No one can leave.
No one can enter.
No one can survive beyond the dome.
But then, a visitor arrives from the outside.
When 12-year-old Agnes Goodwin discovers a strange boy with no memory, she teams up with her best friends to unravel the mystery. Their extraordinary adventure will threaten everything they know...and everyone they love.
Publication date: 29th June 2020
Publisher: Independently published
"A promise is something you never break."
What a wonderful discovery this book has been! A great read with an easy writing, very descriptive, filled with action, tension and spooky moments –even for me, a 23-year-old grownup. When I started reading it I thought it would be a middle graders's version of Under the Dome by Stephen King, but it ended up being an incredible mixture of The Scorch Trials by James Dashner, Allegiant by Veronica Roth, Under the Dome and The Martian by Andy Weir, but of course it all comes from Jason Price's own imagination, which is amazing.
I usually write a lot of notes throughout a book I'm reading to review, but Pleasant Grove got me so hooked that I couldn't stop reading, not even to write notes, and especially since I couldn't find a single thing to criticize in this book. I read its 377 pages in one single day, which is a big milestone for me, a really slow reader. So that would be more than enough for you to go get this novel and read it –especially since it will be for free on Kindle between October 26 and 30! This book hasn't incredible plot twists, but the story develops so naturally that it seems to be writing itself, it all makes perfect sense and has no loose ends. The only thing I can't believe is that cliffhanger at the end of the book, what does it mean? Now I need a second part because Pleasant Grove cannot finish like that!
"We're all different. That's what makes us special."
Pleasant Grove is inclusive and teaches children to be so, to accept that nobody is perfect, that we're human, and we all have strengths and fears. That we shouldn't judge a person for their actions, because everyone has their reasons and their past and we should help them as far as we can. And also that we all should learn to forgive, because memories are what will remain of us, and it's better to be remembered as someone who learnt to be good and to forgive, even if it was at their last moment, than someone who passed away as mean and cruel as their first day. And finally, this novel teaches us all that friends and family are the most important thing, no matter if you're in this world or in another, and that love is what really motivates us.
So basically, you should read this book if you:
Like science fiction, either in books or in films/TV series.
Enjoyed The Maze Runner by James Dashner and/or The Martian by Andy Weir.
Are looking for a middle grade novel to spook you and your children on Halloween.
Believed there was a monster inside your closet or under your bed when you where a child.
Would like to be between the first humans to step on Mars.
Like books with cliffhangers at the end.
Thanks to Jason Price for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: sci-fi, middle-grade, horror.
Words from the author: "I set out to write a novel dedicated to my grade-school daughters, I reflected on the stories that most impacted me - the books I read, and movies I watched, particularly as an adolescent: Spielberg's Amblin films; A Wrinkle in Time; the worlds conjured up by Rod Serling and Jim Henson and Chris Van Allsburg...stories that still resonate today, as a parent who remembers the magic and wonder (and terror) of being 12 years old. I wanted the novel to capture that same sense of wonder - when the greatest adventures could be found in a book...or your own backyard; when we discovered the world was much bigger than our neighbourhood and the freedom was both exhilarating and terrifying. Pleasant Grove is for middle graders...and the middle grader inside us all."
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