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A review by thereadingmum
Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho
3.0
Oh dear, I seem to be having a bad streak with review copies lately. This was another one I really wanted to love, but that fell short.
The premise is great. Portals to a demon dimension open up across the world suddenly and an evil megacorporation has been both protecting and controlling the world from the demons that periodically emerge from those portals since. Jasper works at the soul-numbing, Temu-like store Here for You discount store with its own monster portal right in aisle nine. He is battling demons obv, but also amnesia from a work accident months ago and his crush on one of the portal guards assigned to his store, Kyle (read, I think as Kylie).
Ok so what I didn't like:
1. The name Kyle just annoyed me so much. This is clearly me and my hangups but WHY?!
2. The writing is for middle-grade rather than YA and even then feels too dumbed down. I compare it to books like The Hunger Games or even Roald Dahl's children's books and really, it's only passable.
3. The "twist" was really obvious, but this can be forgiven if the writing was better.
However, it was entertaining and I think many of the older middle-grade to younger YA will enjoy it because the humour is quite dry and it gives off a Warm Bodies vibe. So I did pass it to my 14yo saying I thought she would like it, but it's not a book I would buy for anyone.
The premise is great. Portals to a demon dimension open up across the world suddenly and an evil megacorporation has been both protecting and controlling the world from the demons that periodically emerge from those portals since. Jasper works at the soul-numbing, Temu-like store Here for You discount store with its own monster portal right in aisle nine. He is battling demons obv, but also amnesia from a work accident months ago and his crush on one of the portal guards assigned to his store, Kyle (read, I think as Kylie).
Ok so what I didn't like:
1. The name Kyle just annoyed me so much. This is clearly me and my hangups but WHY?!
2. The writing is for middle-grade rather than YA and even then feels too dumbed down. I compare it to books like The Hunger Games or even Roald Dahl's children's books and really, it's only passable.
3. The "twist" was really obvious, but this can be forgiven if the writing was better.
However, it was entertaining and I think many of the older middle-grade to younger YA will enjoy it because the humour is quite dry and it gives off a Warm Bodies vibe. So I did pass it to my 14yo saying I thought she would like it, but it's not a book I would buy for anyone.