Silent Lee and the Adventure of the Side Door Key

Alex Hiam 

4 stars

Synopsis:

As if life isn’t already complicated when you have to sneak out a magical side door and enter a different century just to get to school each morning. And now Silent has to figure out what happened to her beloved Aunt Generous, the woman who raised her—which would be complicated enough even if the CIA agents in black SUVs weren’t chasing her—but they definitely are!

My Review:

Silent exists in two worlds. The modern(front door) world and a century old(side door) world. She has been raised by her Great Aunt Generous in the ways of the side door world. When her mother shows up to take her away for a couple of days her aunt ‘dies’ and thus starts Silent’s adventures. She is sent to live with cousins and attends a modern school with new technology. She receives a mysterious note from her aunt indicating she has not died and is instead being held captive. This leads Silent on a mission to find and rescue her aunt. 

First off, I really enjoyed this book. As a child of above average intelligence, it was difficult to find books for my maturity level but also my intelligence level. I feel this book achieves both. It kept me interested enough to keep from trying to guess what happens next. There were quite a few twists and I am waiting for the next adventure to be released.

Now for the critique. For somebody who was portrayed as mature, I found Silent to be a slightly immaturely rude character. I also feel as the the book was overly descriptive at times and wandered off topic to reveal inner thoughts that weren’t necessary to the storyline. The first chapter was the worst with lots of added on thoughts/descriptions(such as this). This is the reason why this is a four star rather than a 5 star review. If you are not bothered by those things, this is a 5 star read.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley to review.