2.5 STARS 
 This was featured in my Books I Want To Read in 2016 video, so you could say I was pretty damn excited about this one. I purchased a copy last month and decided to pick it up this month because I felt like it was calling to me from my shelves. Well that must've been another book calling to me and The Door by the Staircase interfered with its reception because I was kinda disappointed with this one. 
 This book is about a young girl named Mary who's living in an orphanage after her mother and brother perish in a fire. A woman comes and adopts Mary and gives her a home she only could dream of... but there's something up with Madame Z and it's up to Mary and her new friend to figure it out before it's too late. 
 I just made the book sound AWESOME with that synopsis. But it wasn't. 
 For some reason when I found out about this book, I got the feeling it took place in modern times, but it ended up taking place in either a time that was never mentioned or an alternate universe, I'm not too sure. Now that didn't make me like the book less, it was just something I noticed. 
 After getting 30 pages in, it seemed to be going pretty slow and then the 100 page mark was hit and things BARELY got going. That's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when a book takes 100 pages to get poppin', especially Middle Grade books because it's hard to keep a child's attention as it is, so why take so damn long? It makes no sense. 
 This was an interesting read for me because it plays off of the Baba Yaga folktale, which I knew nothing about and quickly googled after learning about it. I liked that it was something different and it was giving me a HEAVY Spirited Away vibe, like I can totally see this being made into an animated movie just like that. If it weren't for that vibe, I would've put this down sooner because I LOVE Spirited Away. But I kept going and do I regret it? No, Was I happy at the end? No lol 
 I liked the characters, the cat, Jacob, the interesting creatures Mary comes across but a lot of things could've been better. There was also this big reveal at the end and to me it just came out of nowhere and made me go whaaaaa? Because yes, there were clues but they weren't written in a way that you knew it was something you'd have to decipher later on if you get what I mean. 
 The book was pretty meh. 
 Again the story could've been 10x better but it was still a cute read and I'd say still read it if you were planning to. 
 I'll be talking more about it in my March Wrap Up. 
 -	Richard