Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

This was a unique spin on the “grass isn’t always greener@ story. I found it a tad drawn out for a middle grade novel, but it was thorough and detailed. Jewel has a horn on her head. Not just a horn, but a unicorn named Carmen who follows her everywhere. Middle school is hard enough without being know as “unicorn girl”. Jewel is likable. She makes mistakes that a middle school girl would make. She has wants and desires. She’s overall very relatable. I will definitely recommend this novel to my 7th graders!

The above synopsis gives a really good overview of things that you might find in this book, however, it was not for me. I gave this book a few chances and just was confused and could not hold my attention, so I had to throw in the towel and move on.

DNF Review - review will be live on Sept 20th.

Not a Unicorn is about a young girl with a unicorn horn on her head, she doesn't like it, it makes her an outcast. I got to about the 40% mark of this story so I don't know how it all comes together in the end, but Jewel has located a doctor to remove her horn.

This book has some good qualities - Jewel having a horn and al her feelings surrounding it are how a lot of kids feel in middle school. Like they are too different, too much of an outcast, that they will never fit in and need to match to become popular. So as an visual representation of that aspect of tween years, I thought that this book did a good job. I really hope that the ending of this book (again, I didn't get there) was that unique is ok and that tansforming yourself to be seen as ok by others is not the answer... but I will never know.

It lost me along the way with the addition of Carmen, a unicorn... a hallucination of a unicorn... a real unicorn.. and imaginary friend... I am still not sure exactly. Add to that full cast of characters with little to differentiate them, it made reading this difficult to follow. Maybe it was because I was in ebook format, and a paper copy would have madethe flip back easier, but I still just had to set it aside.

DNF @ 30%. I'm sure this would have been a heartwarming read, and it makes some compelling points about the difficulty of fitting in--especially in middle school, and even without a unicorn horn--but ultimately I did not connect with the writing.

This was a very interesting and different read. I would recommend the book to middle school readers who like magical realism and unicorns.
I really appreciated how the story was relatable despite Jewel’s unicorn horn. I think middle school kids will see themselves in the feelings of being awkward at school, with friends, and around crushes. It was illustrated very well in the contrast of Jewel with and without her horn. She felt just as awkward without it! I liked the inclusion of the details about Jewel’s family struggling financially and how truthful the depiction was.
Overall a relatable read.