When Lacey Berge finds herself stuck with her brainiac of a stepsister Cal in her dead Uncle's creepy old mansion for a week she is not happy. She makes sure everyone around her knows that too. Cal isn't her sister so she doesn't understand why she should be forced to put up with her, but since her dad left to get her stepmom she doesn't have much of a choice. The first night they are through the girls discover that Mister Adger, her late Uncle's assistant, is hiding something on the third floor and Lacey is determined to figure out what it is. Forcing Cal to feign 6 to get him out of the house long enough for them to investigate they discover a machine to another world, one that releases a horde of monsters into the mansion. Not only do the creatures destroy and wreck everything in the house but they also destroy the machine! With no way to fix it and the threat of not just Mister Adger but their parents finding out the girls travel to the other world to meet Lord Sharp who swears he'll make everything better...
Not going to lie for the vast majority of this book my only thought was Lacey needs a therapist and to be grounded until she's an adult. At least. As a human that has no experience with blended families like this, I even tried really hard to put myself in her shoes, but once her dad informs us that he's been married to her step-mother for three years all bets were off. She is so well written in terms of just being mean to Cal that it's kinda hard to read at times. And her special skill being able to talk people into stuff does not redeem her in the least, especially since we are introduced to this skill because she snuck out of her school with a friend to go to a concert. She really just never endeared me to me at all. So bet you are wondering, why the four stars? Because she is well written. She's not just believable, she reminds you of every jerky older sibling you've ever met. She's manipulative, she's sneaky, she's self-centered, I could go on. She's the perfect character to have an epiphany about life in the middle of a crisis caused by her bad behavior. She's great.
World-building, pacing all of those things are great here too. I was expecting The Neitherswarth to be a relatively recognizable space; a hellish landscape, maybe something faeish, but it wasn't and that made me truly happy. With a name like Neitherswarth it *had* to be unique or what's the point!?
The 101 Dalmatians moment at the end though was the best thing ever. Seriously brilliant.
I will definitely be continuing the Berge Sisters adventures with a hopefully still snarky but significantly nicer Lacey.
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