A pretty fun read that's kind of a combination of Scooby-Doo, Supernatural, and a whole lotta science-y stuff. The main characters are sweet, and I'm interested to see how they develop. I think the overall concept is cool, but it's lacking a that OOMPH that really would have made it stand out. I'll keep reading because I have faith in John Allison, but I'm hoping for a little more next time. The whole time I was reading this volume I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, which can be a good thing sometimes, but in the end I just felt a bit meh about it all. ( )

I think this story prides itself on its quirkiness. Because of that, the dialogue is a bit corny at times such as, "Jane, are you a can of Pepsi or a can't of Pepsi?" Ugh.

Jane is the straight man/super serious and Heather is the manic-pixie girl who won't leave her alone. To be honest, Heather bugged me with basically always throwing in Jane's face how boring she is and how she'll end life at a dead-end job and/or married. I get Jane's unfulfilled but gosh what type of friend are you? I might be overthinking it, but I feel like the author's going to touch on Heather manipulating Jane into adventures. I think the ending hinted at Heather's selfishness when she lets Jane down again. There's probably some elaborate backstory as to why they fell out.

I was not expecting the volume to focus so much on Heather's dad who I found uninteresting.

Ehh, good fun with a cute style nonetheless, but I'm not likely to read volume 2.

2.5 ( )

UPDATE, January 7, 2023:

I recently learned this series had concluded, and though I wasn't too keen on it, I do like John Allison, so I thought I'd give it another go. After a re-read, I stand by my original review below, but I'm still going to read the next two volumes because I'm that kind of compulsive.

ORIGINAL REVIEW, April 27, 2019:

A little too silly for me, probably because its aimed at a younger audience. Confronted with a portal to a fantasy realm, no one in the book acts as a reasonable person would. I get that its for comedic effect, but the characters aren't interesting or funny enough for me to put up with their nonsense. That's not to say there aren't some chuckles, but they're mild and too few in number.

The British author decided to set this book in South Dakota without really having an ear for how Midwesterners talk, so everyone here sounds like the English kids in his much better Giant Days series. ( )