LitPick Review
Martin has a cool, mysterious great aunt who always brings back souvenirs for him from her world travels. This time, she brought him back a rare pair of shoes and lets him in on a secret - the existence of a place called the Black Market. The Black Market is a market that only pops up on Halloween night, and can be anywhere in the world. Martin tells his friend Jess the secret, and they decide to look for the Black Market. By the end of Halloween night, Martin has obtained a "bag of dirty tricks," even though he's not sure what that means. He and Jess work together to figure out how to use the contents of the bag, causing a lot of chaos in the process. As they see how powerful these tricks can be, they have to decide what kind of people they want to be and what to do with the contents of the bag.
Opinion:
The Black Market reminded me a bit of when I read Goosebumps books as a child. There are magical items that could have dire consequences, but some of those consequences are downplayed a bit since we're viewing them from the perspective of children. But also, the consequences that the people have to endure all end up being temporary, so luckily, no permanent physical harm is done to anyone.
I found the story to be entertaining and engaging overall. I enjoyed the idea of having a magical bag full of tricks. Not all of them were named, but I enjoyed the creativity in the different tricks that were described. Each trick has its own set of very specific instructions that must be followed for the trick to work as planned. There was a bit of a missed opportunity in seeing how a misfired trick would play out, but I thought it was a good idea to have such variation in how they must be implemented.
The friendship between Martin and Jess was very sweet. They are really close and are pretty self-aware for children. They prioritize their friendship, and through their actions, are shown to ultimately good people. They purposefully choose to not use the tricks that they deem as too harsh, and they also try to figure out who they think is the most evil person they know to try a trick on. Their reasoning is flawed, but makes sense from their perspective. When they do use a trick on the person they chose, Martin and Jess end up learning a lesson about judging others too harshly, and try to show some compassion for someone who they had unfairly considered an evil person.
I enjoyed the character of Jess. Although she is the one who initially pushes Martin to try to find the Black Market and is enthusiastic about seeing the effects of the tricks, she is also shown to be the forward thinker of the two and also ultimately makes a big sacrifice at the end to save the day. Both she and Martin are shown to have different sides to their characters and compliment each other well. In the end, they're both proven to be very wholesome and prioritize doing the right thing over their own selfish interests.
This was a nice Halloween read; there was a general sense of mystery surrounding the Black Market and the bag of tricks. The mischievous nature of the magic and fast pace was definitely reminiscent of Goosebumps. The lessons that the kids learn were also a nice inclusion.
