I feel like I've read this before. Of course, I haven't, because it would be on here if I did, but children getting thrown into the pages of a book is not a new idea. The standard childhood bad guys are here as well: mean witch, pirates, and vicious fighting types. Nothing really sets this apart, which is unfortunate because it started off well. I enjoyed the nerdy bookish character and the inattentive video game playing character. The new house sounded interesting, and the repopulating bookshelves, but almost from the very first moment they were thrown into the books I lost focus. It turned from something potentially substantial and realistic to something silly and very stereotypical. The younger character got on my nerves more and more, and the cheesiness kept getting worse. A big bad book that you can only get by being selfish wasn't the breaking point for me though, I think it was the pirates. I knew since the first mention of a pirate book that the characters would eventually be sent to sea and that pirates would be involved, so I dreaded it the entire time and only hoped it would be short. Well, it wasn't. House of Secrets wasn't terrible, but it's definitely a kids book. I didn't previously think you had to be young to enjoy these types of books, but maybe you do, this just feels somewhat flat and predictable to me.