Quick read with a lots of adventure and a cast of spirits. I think this would be a good fit for fans of the movie Spirited Away or the book [b:Poison|1060562|Poison|Chris Wooding|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328867042s/1060562.jpg|335549], as the main character is a girl stuck between two worlds, with problems popping up in both of them. It might also work for younger readers who want something mythology based that isn't Greek. ( )

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for this ARC.
What a fabulous, fun read! Take Neil Gaiman's Coraline and mix it with Alice in Wonderland and you come out with The Night Parade.
Filled with creativity and suspense, Tanquary brings readers a wonderfully entertaining world of spirits and family tradition. Many readers will identify with Saki's struggles to do the right thing and her perseverance to fix those things that have gone wrong.
This book will be a favorite of those middle readers looking for a new, mysterious and fascinating adventure. ( )

In case you didn't already know, I'm a crazed Miyazaki fan. It's the enchanting mix between reality and fantasy, plus the reminder of our deep connection to the world around us, that always captures me. So you can imagine my delight when I realized that Kathryn Tanquary had done the same thing, but in book form. I was transported to a small town in Japan. One where the old ways are still honored, and the veil between the world of spirits and the world of living is thin. A place of magic. This was absolutely wonderful, and I hope you're prepared for some gushing!

Let me get this out of the way straight off, and admit that I didn't like Saki for a good portion of this book. It becomes apparent, pretty quickly, that it's supposed to be that way. It took me a while to separate my adult self, from my childhood self, and realize that MG fiction generally needs to be pretty polarized in terms of character growth. Saki had to start out selfish, stubborn and mildly unbearable because, as the book progresses, she slowly loses all of those traits. A Middle Grade reader would see that, and accept it as fact. People who start out terrible in books, don't stay terrible forever. I needed to remember that, even though I do think she could have been a bit less grating. I'm warning you, because you'll need to remember it too. Trust me, it's worth it.

Now that we've addressed that, on to the gushing! The way that Saki was taught her lessons, and the way that she grew, was my absolute favorite part of this story. During Obon, it is said that the barrier between the living and the spirit world is the thinnest. Traditions are upheld, to honor the dead and keep the spirit world pure. Tanquary took this concept, and wove a whole magical world on the other side of the veil. A world with trickster foxes, terrifying monsters, and ogres with a soft side. A world that was beautiful, but also dangerous. I fell into that world head first, and I was enraptured. I want to see this made into a movie so much! Being part of the Night Parade was intoxicating.

As the story moves forward, and Saki becomes a heroine in her own right, things just got better and better. I couldn't stop reading. My eyes were glued to the page as Saki met wave after wave of fascinating and terrible creatures. I held my breath as she scaled walls, fended off the darkness, and grew ever closer to her goal. I'm not even the target audience for this book, and I felt the magic roiling off of the pages. This book is brilliant. It's addictive. Middle Grade readers are going to love it. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book and I thought it was pretty good. This book starts out with 13 year old Saki, who is visiting her grandma. Her grandma lives in a small village in Japan with nothing to do; or so she thinks. One night Saki is at a festival with her family when she tells her mom she is "going the get her coat". Instead Saki goes to a store so she can get away from everything and cool down. While there she meets some village's local "bad" kids who remind her of her friends from Tokyo so she decides to say hi. These kids think she is a stuck up Tokyo girl so they try to scare her by playing an old Japanese game in the graveyard. They told her whoever got scared first had to ring the bell in the temple which is rumored to bring a death curse.
As Saki goes to sleep that night a spirit in the form of a fox comes and visits her, while there the fox tells her she only has 3 nights to save her life with the help of three spirit guides. Little does Saki know the fox is a spirit of tricks and will only make it harder to save her life. The fox then brings Saki to a temple which is supposed to "help" Saki however no other spirits are supposed to know about Saki because humans are hunted in the spirit world. At the temple there is a spirit guard that finds out Saki is human. When Saki turns backs for the fox's help the fox is gone and morning has come which means Saki would be transported back home. The next night a Tengu tries to help Saki break the curse which he does pretty well but doesn't succeed before morning.The next night tanuki helps her, and they successfully make it to night prince and tries to break the curse,but the night prince can't because the darkness was to strong. Saki then wakes up and finds herself back in the human world in a hospital, where everyone is worried that she is dead. However she escapes the hospital with the help of a village girl and climbs all the way to the top of the mountain by her grandmothers house with every last bit of energy she has and ends up defeating the bad with the good and living and saves her life.
Now I will rate the book and tell you how good it was. I would give this book a 4.5 star rating. I gave this book that rating because it was pretty good but there were some parts that were boring but overall it was a great book. The cover art is also really pretty and I found myself looking at it a lot. If you are looking for a book to read I would definitely recommend it. Thanks for reading this book review. I hope you enjoyed it and have a great day. ( )

Drawing on Japanese mythology, this middle grade book is entertaining, though unevenly paced.

[I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.] ( )