Fantastic book for middle grade readers--or any readers!-- who enjoy fantasy and fairy tales. Appropriate for younger readers too.

I loved this book; it reminded me of the fantasy movies you watch as a kid and continue to revisit way into adulthood. This book was basically Once Upon A Time in a book and it was perfect, the storyline was brilliant, yet simple and easy-to-follow, and it kind of left me thinking ‘Why didn’t I think of this? I could’ve been an author’, the pacing of the book was really good and I could definitely see my younger cousins reading this and really enjoying it. ALSO, CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE GORGEOUS COVER? Great job to whoever did that. It’s been a while since I read a middle-grade (I only ever read Rick Riordan books if i’m going to read MG) but this book has 100% convinced me to get off my I’m-nor-a-kid-anymore-I-don’t-read-middle-grade high horse and check some more out.
Overall, this book was super cute and I’m pretty sure all ages will really enjoy it, I’m also really glad I liked this, I’d feel like such a cow if I had to one-star another ARC. If there was anything wrong with this book, i would say that the characters weren’t the most memorable or well-developed and not many of them had particularly unique traits, but that could just be because I’m used to reading high-fantasy books that are often three times the size of this book, so I’m not going to judge too harshly on that.

Thank you to flux for the arc of this book.
It was an ok read, wasn’t great, wasn’t bad, one of those you could pick up and put down and pick up and know where you had left off.
It’s an interesting concept for a book, but it really didn’t grab me or get me excited to finish it.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all let me just say that I LOVED the premise of this book and I only wish that there was a YA version so that it could go into more detail and background of the story.

Gracie is a young girl who was taken out of a storybook world into our world as a baby and is trying to find out more about where she came from.

Without going into spoilers I will say that I really enjoyed this book and although short (190 pages) I really got on board with some of the characters and willed them to do better. As I said previously I would have liked a little more backstory for the motivations of the characters however as I am not the target audience I think it would be fine for them.

Overall, I think everyone should give the book a chance as it is an easy and enjoyable read.

3.5 stars overall. This was a fun, enjoyable read that had a solid premise and adventure. There were some inconsistent moments such as a certain age of a person being described, but the behavior being exhibited didn't really line up with the setting. There were times that I wished descriptions were a bit more fleshed out, especially with the settings and places. Still, I felt this was a fun book that many will likely enjoy. It's a great adventure story that will be sure to entertain with a plot that has just enough unique touches to feel new.

A bit too simple and short for me, it definitely reads as a book meant for a younger audience (which it is!), but I've definitely read books aimed for younger audiences that I enjoyed much more than this book.

The concept was interesting, but not entirely one I hadn't seen before. I think the idea could have been executed a bit better. Everything happened way too quickly. I think things were way too simplified.

At least it was a short snappy read.

The beautiful cover was what attracted me to this book and the synopsis sounded familiar enough to be an intriguing and fun genre of a familiar fantasy-reality blend. However, because this is a format that's pretty much been done (admittedly, we're probably more used to the idea of a real person in a book world rather than this flipped concept), we have many examples to help compare and relate.

So, I passed this to my 10-year-old daughter -- the perfect target for this book and she said it could've been written better. There are some books like it and they're more enjoyable than this one. Some parts were confusing, especially in the opening . She wishes there were more character build up and description, especially on the main characters. If the author had taken more time to develop, she thinks she may have liked the book more.

Overall it was ok.

3.75 Stars

What will you do if a dark horrible fantasy story comes to life and you find out you are one of the character in the book that eventually dies? Oh I never want to be written in any kind of story after reading this.

Unwritten was a middle grade fantasy story about 12-yr-old Gracie who was desperate find out about her birthplace which was an unusual world a story. The book was mainly about battle of good vs bad within ourselves; finding true self and being what you want to be not what other says.

Characters-

Gracie was grumpy, impulsive, and stubborn girl. Gracie and mom’s views looked selfish. I didn’t like the way Gracie kept blaming someone else for her action. Even her mom kept blaming Gertrude for writing a story. I mean how Gertrude could have guessed the story might come to life!! I couldn’t see any development in Gracie’s character till the very end which was a minus point about the book. Do I like her? Not sure! I just liked how she acted in the end.

The secondary characters who were also a part of Gertrude’s story were also complicated. I couldn’t point who to call good or bad till the third half of the book. It seemed like all characters were flawed and there was a touch of suspense to all of them which was plus point.

I pitied Gertrude most. I could imagine how she might have felt for being blamed of writing the story. I found her more sensible and practical person than the characters she has written.

What I liked-

The plot was most interesting and instantly dragged me in the story.

Gracie and her mother were the characters from the story written by Gertrude Winters in which they we’re supposed to die. The place in the story called Bondoff was Gracie’s birth place. Gracie was having visions of things that would have happened in the story, if her parents have not taken her out of it. Ever since her mother told about Bondoff and reason of visions, Gracie was desperate to find out more about the story and what was her character in the story. In trying to get the answers, she disobeyed her mother and went to see Gertrude Winters and messed up things terribly.

It was third person narrative written from Gracie POV. I was intrigued to know the story of Gracie and her mother. World and characters were twisted and complex. There was so much unpredictability and uncertainty that hooked me till the end.

I had lot of question in first few chapters only – how the characters of the book can come alive in first place, did someone cast magic on story or something? What were the characters like in the story? How they found a way to the real world? The answers were revealed one by one in first half of the book still I couldn’t help but think what was going on. It was like as soon as the answer to one question was given the new one popped up. Book progressed so fast that it hardly gave a time to think over it.

The second half of the book was fabulously written. The twist was unimaginable. I couldn’t guess a thing. At around climax finally Gertrude revealed things about story she wrote. I so loved what she said in this part. It was utterly mind blowing. The book became more intriguing at this point and couldn’t put down the book.

Till climax I wasn’t sure what to think about characters, whether they were good or bad. At the end the development in the Gracie was satisfactory and I loved how they all turned out and owned up their mistakes. End was unpredictable and satisfactory.

There were some insightful messages in the book that I loved-

It said about how deeply we get affected by what others say or portrays us or think or write about our character. Do we really need to know what we truly are from someone else perspective? How having the impulse to know what people think about us, we give them more power over us. Like Gracie’s mother said, we can be what we want to be. To be good or bad depends on us.

The importance of anger management also displayed nicely in the book. The message of having control over the anger and not to let anger control over us was remarkable.

why 3.75 stars-

Book was too short and had a serious tone. Character development was very late in the book and it became frustrating seeing Gracie asking the same thing ‘how she was written in the story’ and acting based on it rather than finding something within herself. I’m not sure I liked her or not.

More suspense and less drama. For middle grade book I expected a bit of entertainment in the story as well.

Overall, it was interesting book with dark magical plot, complex characters and insightful messages. I like it. Middle grade readers (age 8-15 yrs) will enjoy it but I cannot say about other readers.

I like The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a book that deals with a long-term problem faced by every human. It starts from when we master walking to when we are no longer able to do so.

The struggle with human nature is a daily occurrence. Striving to rise above our selfish impulses or sacrifice temporary desires to help another is part of life demands. Every human wants to be the hero of his own story. But there is also a side of humans that want to hurt others, self-sabotage, do away with obstacles no matter what it takes... all in the bid to get what we want.

This constant fight is at the root of existence and one of the subjects of Tara Gilboy's new book, Unwritten.

In Unwritten, we see fairytale characters escape from an unfinished manuscript written by a writer named Gertrude Winters. Ms Winters' characters are on the run from a villain that seeks to capture and draw them back into the story. But the escapees are determined to live their lives outside of what has been written about them.

For example, one of the escapees, Gracie, who is a villain in the manuscript, has behaved otherwise since living outside of the story. As the power of the story pulls her to behave in an obnoxious way, she fights against her scripted self to do what she thinks is best for herself and her family. All through the book, we witness Gracie torn between who she is supposed to be and who she desires to be.

Unwritten by Sarah Gilboy reveals the difficulties of trying to do what is right versus what is easy. It also shows that internal struggles, though personal, needn't be borne alone.

Many thanks to Jolly Fish Press for review copy.

I really enjoyed the concept of the story, it’s unique and full of great ideas. A story within a story. Tara was able to bring both scenes to life, both in the real world and in Bondoff from the characters behaviour, the detail in the environment to the outfits they wear. It’s a clear distinction which really allows the reader to get lost in the scene.
I really liked how our ‘writer’ Gertrude Winters, uses a different representation of herself to make her characters in the story. She believes the best characters are the villains which is who she relates mostly too. A certainty that the villain could get her own happy ending.

‘”I wrote the story during an awful time in my life.” Gertrude Winters seemed to grow stronger as she talked. “Everyone I loved acted as if they despised me. I was tired of stories that only celebrated heroic characters. I’d done bad things, but who hasn’t? We’re not all good or bad. It’s why I wanted to write a story that honoured the villain.”
“At the bookstore, you said villains were fascinating,” Gracie said. “Your favourite characters.”
“Because what does it mean, really, to be labeled a villain? No one actually thinks of herself as a villain. We are all the heroes in our own stories.”‘

I liked Gracie as a character, she’s young and naive, with all the secrets kept from her, she finds the courage to find out the truth. When she’s put in difficult situations, her responses are realistic and relatable. She gets upset, she gets frustrated but she pushes on because she has no other choice. All she wants is to get her life back with her mum whilst fighting against the possibility that she could turn into the character in the story that everyone is afraid of. She’s frustrating at times because she’s constantly ignoring her parents advice but she’s young and confused after all so you can’t blame her too much on her actions.
Walter was an interesting character, it’s a good concept to include a character that doesn’t even believe in their own story. He believes that fiction is a waste of time and that science defines everything. He also immediately forgets who he was in the story unlike Gracie with I personally found odd. As a character, he was difficult for me to relate too, the nerdy kid with no friends who has a role to play whether Gracie likes it or not as he was originally from Bondoff like her, so it was intriguing that he ended up playing a huge part in the end since he was just the ‘sidekick’.

‘What good is a hero who fails to see a story’s magic?’

Overall I thought the book was good, but I felt it was missing a bit more detail. It’s target audience is definitely for the younger generation who are looking for a romanticised fantasy book but may lack character development and in-depth scenery. What was Cassandra’s happy ending to fight for it so badly? Where did she end up? Why does wanting a happy ending make her the villain? I felt the author could have also included more additional characters rather sticking to just the main ones. Bondoff felt incredibly small and lonely with it’s limited population.

I was getting serious Inkheart flashbacks as I read this book; however, the plot was not nearly as well thought out nor the characters as interesting. It had the potential. It was totally there. The execution was somewhat lacking. I didn’t truly understand the full extent of “magic” in this world.

The characters were probably the worst part (which they definitely shouldn’t be). I can’t honestly say I liked any of them. Gracie was whiny as was her friend. All of the adults were wildly useless even though they seemed as though they should be responsible.

As a middle grade book, it’s cute, adventurous, and interesting. It doesn’t cross into the young adult sphere very well though because of the unlikable characters. It was okay, but I won’t be reading it again.

This book read quickly, at a blistering pace. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, both in and out of their book "main state," so to speak. Lately there have been a whole bunch of middle grade novels that get into some of the darker, grittier concepts that these kids will find when they step into the YA shelves, and I am here for it 100%. When you assume you're the hero of your story, but then find out that no matter what happens you're actually, shockingly, the villain ... stuff really starts to go haywire. This book "goes there," and I love it for that. Give Gracie and her story a shot this October, and lose yourself in her world.

Hoy toca hablar de un libro middle-grade, porque de vez en cuando siempre está bien ver qué nos puede aportar la literatura que llega a los más pequeños. En este caso, además, se trataba de un libro con una premisa muy interesante: los personajes de un libro escapan del mismo para poder sobrevivir. Imaginaos si hicieran eso los de Sanderson o los de Abercrombie. Así pues, me sumergí en un libro que, esperaba, fuera ligero y relajado pero que tuviera un cierto mensaje detrás.

Y lo que me encontré me dejó patidifuso, porque la trama fue a los sitios más oscuros que me podía imaginar. Lo primero, no es un libro exactamente, sino un borrador, el sitio del que salen. Un borrador que nunca había visto la luz del sol porque nadie podía querer leer esa historia. Y conforme iba leyendo me asombraba los espacios tan oscuros que tocaba, además, desde la perspectiva más inocente que podía haber. Pero no solo eso, obviamente, los personajes vuelven en un determinado momento al libro y allí vemos cómo el mensaje, un mensaje bastante típico de "Solo tú puedes decidir cómo quieres actuar y quién quieres ser realmente", unido a un "nurture over nature" muy potente, se crea al hacer a la protagonista vivir dos vidas la que ella quiere y la que su personaje lleva al mismo tiempo. Digamos que la situación no es precisamente bonita.

Los personajes consiguen que esa situación tan compleja se transmita más fácilmente, centrándose en las emociones y en las situaciones a las que cada uno se enfrenta. Ayuda mucho ver el personaje de la escritora, aunque la deja en bastante mal lugar. Y es que quizá lo más gracioso del tema es cómo los personajes de la historia son tridimensionales mientras que la autora es bastante planita. Todo lo que sabes de ella es por lo que ella dice, no hay ningún momento en el que actúe según esas situaciones. Sin embargo, la chica protagonista muestra mucha más entereza y resolución a cada paso, así como esa lucha interna entre lo que esperan de ella y lo que ella quiere para sí misma.

El estilo ayuda bastante a la historia, si bien no le hubieran venido mal algunas descripciones del espacio más, llevando al lector rápidamente de un punto a otro. No hay ningún momento en que no parezca bien estructurado, lo que consigue que le cojas cariño a esa sencillez con la que intenta mostrarte el mundo, tanto el real como el ficticio. Otra cosa que también está muy bien es la forma en que los personajes se muestran ante el lector, con apenas unas pinceladas para que sea fácil identificarlos.

En definitiva, no es el mejor libro middle grade que os podéis encontrar, pero sí una buena forma de entender la metaliteratura así como los procesos de creación de los autores (aunque en este caso la autora emplee toda su oscuridad para crear). También me gusta bastante la forma en que se muestra la curiosidad típica de los niños y la búsqueda de la verdad.

I really liked this middle grade novel! The idea of characters taken out of a story was really cool and it was also the ground for some nice reflections about fiction, about why we write it and read it, and about agency.

The book even went kind of dark at times which is something I didn't expect from a MG novel but that pleasantly surprised me, to the point that I had to remind myself this was MG because in some parts it read like lower YA to me.

Anyway, I'm convinced that anyone could read this book and enjoy it! I for one kept thinking that I would have loved it as a kid so that's certainly a win because 10-12 year old me had good taste

A storybook character taken out of her own story because her parents didn't like the ending.

I liked the concept but not how the author initiated it. There were too many confusing twist and turns and the battle between hero and villain was blended so much I couldn't tell who was which. I'm still not quite sure who the heroes or the villains are.

Having said that this is a middle grade novel that is appropriate for all ages.

Book: Unwritten
Author: Tara Gilboy
Release Date: October 16th, 2018
Star Rating: 3/5
This is a Middle Grade book perfect for grades 4th-6th grade. I love that the main character Gracie is a female and someone who is not perfect. She will be a great influence on little girls around the world. 

I really loved the idea of this story within a story. Gracie wants to meet Gertrude Winters, an author that has written a world that has come to life. Gracie and her mom were part of the world but had escaped to live their lives the way they see fit, not how Gertrude wrote them. 
However, 12-year-old Gracie wants to know what Winters wrote about her and her family. Gracie has flashes of fire and sees a beautiful woman standing over her. Despite her mother's warnings Gracie went the author's book signing at their local bookstore and sets in motion a chain of events that bring her, her mother, and other characters from the storybook into the story world. 

 "Inside the story, Gracie struggles to navigate the blurred boundary between who she really is and the surprising things the author wrote about her. As the story moves toward its deadly climax, Gracie realizes she'll have to face a dark truth and figure out her own fairy-tale ending."

I loved the idea of this story but I do wish that the characters had more growth. They seemed a little one-dimensional. I feel like this could be a great series, but I am not sure if there will be a second book. 

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book is a hybrid of Inkheart and The Hazel Wood, with a younger audience in mind. I enjoyed the emotional spectrum that was handled with expertise in this novel, as I often find younger books (for 12 year olds etc) tend to be poor in their management of this, so that is likely to be a selling point for parents and teachers. I think the plot was very well done, in the sense that it 'made sense' and was engaging. A fantastic novel, and sure to be a hit!

A story in which a character finds her way into the world of a book has enduring appeal, and I’m at the front of the line to read such adventures to my favorite imaginary places. So when I read the description of a story in which our young heroine escapes from the world of a book into our own, I was intrigued. Unwritten fulfils the promise of its premise with quirky, immediately sympathetic people whose personalities warp and evolve as they are revealed through the plot. Gracie and her (single, waitress) mother are exiles from a storybook world in which, Gracie has always been told, she dies. Our ordinary world is the only place they’re safe from the evil queen. They keep their heads down, trying to not attract any attention that might draw the queen to them.

When the author of the book comes to town to do a bookstore signing, Gracie defies her mother and sneaks into the store to find out more about her own story. “I don’t know,” says the author, “that book never worked, so I threw away the manuscript.”

A series of mishaps, catalyzed by Gracie’s act of rebellion, catapult her, her mother, the man who might be her deadbeat father, and her best friend and his parents, along with the author, into the storybook world. Just as she was warned, the story itself begins shaping each character according to how she has been written. Despite her best intentions, Gracie finds herself acting out her own plot line, not as the tragic victim but as the villain.

The way the book played with subjective versus consensus reality, not to mention a plot paced briskly enough to hold the attention of younger readers, was enough to carry me along, through twists and turns, star-crossed love stories, and questions about how much control any of us have over our destiny. Although it’s marketed as Middle Grade (Gracie is 12), it’s a fine, fast read for fantasy lovers of any age.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it.

Unwritten by Tara Gilboy

YA/ Middle Grade Fantasy

Expected Publication Date: 16 October 2018

4/5 stars

Gracie Freeman is a seemingly normal 12 year old girl who lives in a small town with her mother. But she is haunted by nightmares and glimmers from another life, one in which she is a character in an unpublished fairytale. When her parents find out her fate in the story, they use a magic book to escape to the real world.

As she grows up, Gracie can’t help but wonder about who she is, and what was written about her in the story. So when the author, Gertrude Winters, is in town, Gracie seeks her out and sets in motion a chain of events that draws Gracie and other storybook characters back into the long forgotten tale.

As she navigates her way through the story, Gracie struggles with the boundary between fiction and reality; and between who she is, and the character Gertrude Winters wrote her to be.

Confession One: I dislike middle grade.

Confession Two: Unwritten is probably the best middle grade novel I’ve read in years.

I finished Unwritten in a few hours. It was fairly short, but it was also addictive. I had to know what was going to happen!

What I Liked:

The quality of the writing. Despite being for a younger teenage audience, the writing was excellent. And it didn’t sound condescending, which I really hate.
The world building was seamless. It was certainly there, but it was quite subtle. There was enough detail for me to form a mental picture, but it wasn’t overdone.
The depth of the plot and backstory was impressive. The story was well crafted, and absolutely compelling.
The themes explored in Unwritten were intelligently executed. It explored identity issues, rising above expectations that other people have of you, as well as the nature of story and characters.
In terms of character development, it centres almost exclusively on Gracie. The result is that most of the other characters don’t get a lot of personal growth. That being said, I don’t think it was a big problem given the target audience.

Overall, I really enjoyed Unwritten, and I would happily recommend it to anyone who likes middle grade fantasy. Or fantasy full stop.

Huge thank you North Star Editions and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book!

Ok first of all, I need to preface this review by saying that this book is aimed at middle-grade children and being a grown woman in her 30s, I am definitely not the target audience. However, I’ve enjoyed middle-grade books in the past, which is why I requested this one; the description sounded really promising but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me.

I think most of the issues I had with this book can all be put down to the length of it. 200 pages is probably perfectly fine for the majority of young readers under 12 who don’t want to spend hours reading and don’t care about character development, world building, and pacing. But for anyone who cares about those things, this book is missing pretty much all of that and I feel like that’s mainly due to it being so short and not having enough space to go into detail.

Full (spoiler-y) review here: http://wmsreads.tumblr.com/post/175774283427