I am a big fan of this series but Book Eight: The Inside Story struck me as a little thin in places. It has sort of postmodern – or Jasper Fforde-ish – perspective as the characters are stuck in The Book of Everafter chasing Pinocchio and the Mirror through classic fairy tales while at the same time dealing with The Editor and his voracious revisors – hungry monsters who eat text and anything else that gets in their way.
Readers from the last book will recall that the sisters have to rescue their brother from the schemeing mirror who took him into the book – and chasing him Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck fell in as well.
The larger focus is mostly on Sabrina as she comes to grip with being a leader for her family and friends and her developing relationship with Puck.
In all the chaos and jokes about Fairy Tales there begins to emerge a backstory about Snow White and the history of the Everafters that seems promising but it nearly gets lost in the jump from from one Fairy Tale to the next. The last third of the story picked up the pace and there is still some funny lines and interactions but the story as a whole lacks the rhythm and pace of earlier stories.
I could be the simplified story – that is after all for young readers – just didn’t grab me this time, but for whatever reason I just didn’t enjoy the plot or the adventure nearly as much this time.
Still a great series and I will the read the next one I am sure – and I am looking forward to the conclusion of the series.
