Grimworld by Avery Moray Blog Tour + Giveaway ~ BookishRealm

Happy Thursday everyone! Today I'm working with Lola's Blog Tours to review Grimworld by Avery Moray. The blog tour runs from 26 October till 8 November. See the tour schedule here: http://www.lolasblogtours.net/blog-tour-grimworld-by-avery-moray Keep reading to see what I thought of the book and enter to win a chance at a giveaway!

Series: N/A
# of Pages:
Publication:
Source: Review Copy
Genre: Middle Grade
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Every day, thirteen year old Henry Bats has his usual bowl of Sugar Slugs, helps tend Cobalt Sidewinders at Frank’s Peculiar Pets, and keeps to himself with his comic book collection. Just your typical day in Grimworld, where the sky is always dark and shadows lurk in the streets. What’s not typical is a suspicious Nightspook luring Henry into a cemetery in the middle of the night with the promise of a prized comic book. The Nightspook steals part of Henry's lifespan with a pocket watch, which begins counting down to his death. Henry is running out of time, and the pocket watch won't stop ticking...

Grimworld, a fascinating new middle grade novel centers around young boy named Henry Bats. Unfortunately Henry ends up in a weird scheme where a "nightspook" attaches a pocket watch to Henry stealing part of his life. What unravels is an adventure where Henry and several other members of the Grimworld community race against time to release the watches from their bodies before they die.

"'Yes, unfortunately, the lifespan I gained from his was rather short, thus I've already suffered two deaths in my time."'

One of my favorite aspects of this novel was the character development and the relationships between characters. Henry, in the beginning of the novel, seems rather reserved and quiet. He keeps to himself, reads a lot of comics, and doesn't appear to have a lot of friends. However, when he meets Lang, another character who also has a watch attached to his body; Henry changes and becomes more outgoing and seems to genuinely care about Lang and his well being. I definitely found myself rooting for the development of their friendship not only for the sake of Henry, but also Lang who has been through a lot in losing both his mother and brother. Even Henry's parents are enthusiastic about him having new friends and encourage the blossoming of the friendship even if they are unaware of the circumstances under which Henry and Lang become friends. There is also a positive illustration of sibling relationships between Henry and his sister Hattie. In the beginning of the book I thought that they weren't going to get along because they were always arguing; however, Hattie genuinely cares about Henry and continuously goes out of her way to make sure she can help Henry and Lang maintain their lives. The only character that I did not enjoy (I'm guessing this is to be expected) is the "villain" Jacoby. He was strange not only because he was attempting to steal lives, but also because he had this strange obsession with dolls and tea parties. He was a grown main interested in having tea parties with Hattie which truly made my skin crawl.

"Thank you, Hattie. You're really saving me life here, literally."

The plot was interesting because the main characters were tasked with different riddles and adventures; however, the book was lacking in world building. The reader is thrown into this new and intriguing world with no back story, no explanation of why it exists and how it exists. There are references to different parts of town which can be confusing for the reader because they have no context of how the world is structured. I was so intrigued by the story that I really wanted more insight to the town that Henry and Lang belonged to. I even wanted to know more about the residents instead of them being static secondary characters. If this was focused on a bit more, I think that this book would have been phenomenal especially with the spooky, atmospheric vibe that it provided. I also would have loved to know more about what happens to Persi. Her story didn't necessarily feel complete.

"Henry navigated through Grimworld's many side streets and alleyways toward home, the Gloom Ghast never far behind."

Overall, I thought that this was a good middle grade novel. I definitely would be interested in seeing if the author makes the decision to develop more books in this world. If so, I think it would be great to see more world building and a completion to Persi's story.

Avery Moray is a storyteller who specializes in middle grade and young adult fantasy. She lives in a land with tall mountains and wide plains with her two furry sidekicks and one non-furry accomplice. She likes sweets, cats, Halloween, and loves creating all kind of things, stories being one of them.

You can find and contact Avery Moray here:

- Website: http://averysbookland.com/

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/averymoray/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/averysbookland

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/averysbookland/