The story is written by a British woman and there are a lot of British slang and terms that I didn’t understand.  There’s also a lot of characters to keep track of and it can get confusing at times.  There’s not much explanation in the story.  In fact, sometimes I wondered if I had skipped pages.

            There were no characters I was particularly fond of.  Alice rarely feels any joy about anything.  She seems somewhat disassociated, but there’s no reason given for her melancholy.  It’s as if the readers are expected to just take it for granted that because she’s a teenager, she’s unhappy.

            This is a short, easy read, an okay story but nothing special or compelling.  I won’t continue reading the series.  However, I think younger kids, maybe 10-13 years old will enjoy the book.  Younger readers might not get bored with it like I did.