Alice in Everville by
S. C. Langgle Pages: 181
Published by Pendrell Publishing on 2013-03-19
Source: ecopy from Publisher 
Welcome to my stop on the Alice in Everville blog tour!
Paperback
Expected publication: March 19th 2013 by Pendrell Publishing
Age Group: YA
Source: eARC from Author
Summary:
A poem can seem like a labyrinth, a maze of words you can lose yourself in. The key is to find a thread to hold on to, to guide you in your reading, to lead you into and out of a labyrinth of words… AliceLittle thinks she’s read every word the world-famous poet Sylvie Plate published before her untimely death…until she discovers a coded message hidden in Sylvie’s final collection of poems–a message that may explain the poet’s mysterious demise. All she has to do is decipher the code and she knows she can convince her beloved English teacher, Miss A, that Sylvie’s message is real. Unfortunately, she only has one manic day at Everville Mall to do it. And between keeping track of her fountain-splashing, havoc-wreaking sister, finding a new copy of Sylvie’s poems, and…oh yeah…dealing with the blue-eyed, guitar-playing, majorly swoon-worthy Jaden Briar, who keeps popping up everywhere she goes, Alice wonders if she will ever finish deciphering in time.
Alice in Everville reminded me of The DaVinci Code right off the bat. It was what initially interested me in the book, but what ended up keeping my interest was Alice herself. This book is much shorter and much less puzzle solving intensive than the Da Vinci Code. Rather, it is a story of Alice, and I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into her life.
Alice is a girl that has a tough life. Her mom has served many stints in the “crazy” hospital and her sister is prone to very public and very humiliating outbursts. And Alice is stuck in the middle and left to be the responsible one. Everything kind of falls on her shoulders. I have no idea how she watched her little sister all the time by herself. She really was very mature for her age. I also really liked that most of the book took place in the Everville mall. I thought that was a unique setting to have a whole book in.
The code part of the book was interesting. Alice was trying to find out who Slyvie Plath’s killer was. And along the way she met a guy and found some adventure. I would have liked a little bit more development. I loved the writing and the characters but the book felt very short to me. I would have liked a little bit more plot and character interaction. I felt like there was a build up to a cute romance and then it just kind of fell off the map and was never brought up again. I wanted to see what was going to happen.
The ending was cool and I appreciated how Alice fit the answer into her life overall. I thought it was a pretty cool theme for the book to have. I just wanted to keep reading. I was a little disappointed when the book ended because I thought there was more that could have been done. Mostly I just liked everyone so much, that I didn’t want to say goodbye to them yet. I think Alice in Everville was a unique idea and it worked really well. I loved being invited into Alice’s life.
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| 3.5/5 Gavels |
S.C. Langgle is a lifelong lover of words and stories who has never outgrown her preference for children’s and young adult literature. A graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at the Universityof Southern California, S.C. is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. She currently lives in Hollywood, California, only a block from Marilyn Monroe’s handprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, though she spends more time at home with her computer than mingling with celebrities. Luckily, she has her two adorable dogs—a Chihuahua, Chin-Mae, and a maltipoo, Sasha—to keep her company, and she’d choose them over a gaggle of Hollywood stars any day.
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Thanks so much for participating in the blog tour, Michelle!
I am intrigued by the premise, the codes and world-building, so glad you shared this one.
This sounds like a very interesting book, one that I would like to read.