Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren, A Review

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Book Description

Freddy wants desperately to not be noticed. She doesn't want to be seen as different or unusual, but her step-brother Roland gets attention because he's deaf, and her little sister Mel thinks she's a private detective. All Freddy wants to do is navigate high school with as little trouble as possible.

Then someone moves into the house on Grosvenor Street. Two extremely odd someones.

Cuerva Lachance and Josiah aren't . . . normal. When they move in next door, the house begins to exhibit some decidedly strange tendencies, like not obeying the laws of physics or reality. Just as Freddy thinks she's had enough of Josiah following her around, she's plunged into an adventure millennia in the making and discovers the truth about the new neighbors.

Review

I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher. Here is my honest review.

I super enjoyed this book! I loved the cover and then was pleasantly surprised to find that it has time travel, which is about the only type of science fiction I truly enjoy. The opening hooked me right away and I loved seeing how Freddy's chance encounter with a stranger who gave her a key turned out. 

All the characters in the book are quirky which was a lot of fun - unrealistic maybe, but still fun. What was interesting is that none of the characters have strong friendships but that didn't take away from the story. It was just unique for a middle-grade book - maybe young adult* actually as Freddy is a teenager - I thought. *It didn't have any typical YA tropes, which is why I thought it was middle-grade. (This makes me love it even more!)
The one thing that really bugged me about this book was Freddy's parents. I can't really believe that the parents are so disconnected that they don't make an appearance until the absolute very end. And by appearance I mean interaction with their children. That was unbelievable and maybe it was necessary for the plot but I would kindly disagree.
This is a time travel book and the way Maaren chooses to explore it was pretty refreshing - I don't recall an explanation at all as to how the time travel actually worked. And there were a lot of different times and places that were visited, with varying amounts of development of the time period and characters. Some gave you a good sense of that time and others were a brief glimpse. It was different but for me, it worked. I didn't have to worry about figuring out the science behind everything I could just take it at face value and move on. 
Finally, I really enjoyed Maaren's writing style: it was rich and descriptive and full of great vocabulary. I hope she writes more books!

I gave this book: ★★★★

★ = I did not like it     ★★ = It was okay     ★★★ = I liked it    

★★★★ = I really liked it     ★★★★★ = I loved it