Read Time: 2 Minutes
Having a daughter that likes audiobooks and is in the age range (8-14) this book is targets towards, I enlisted some extra help while listening to this book. It sounded like one that she would enjoy so over a few nights, we sat and listened to “Roamers” by Constance Hasapopoulos.
The story revolves around Beatrice and her younger brother Sammy, two orphans who find themselves under the rather dubious care of their “aunt” Cynthia. The town and the aunt are a little creepy, according to my daughter, and soon enough everything escalates when Cynthia abducts Sammy through a portal to a mirror world.
Determined to get him back, Beatrice and a gang on kids get hot on the trail and follow into the other world. Filled with lots of fantasy characters, plus lots of evildoers and baddies who Beatrice and the kids outwit with their usual cunning, my daughter and I enjoyed the chases and daring escapes. In some parts I noticed that my daughter got a little lost in parts where we saw the “other” side of the characters, but overall, she did enjoy the story.
Scenes jump around a little between “real life” and those from stories, like falling through a toilet and into life as Cinderella, or Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook. Stepping into and out of the story worlds did mean keeping extra attention on the story to not miss the transitions.
The audiobook version is a full-cast narration with added sound effects for extra immersion. My daughter was a particular fan of this, saying she said she felt more in the story at times. Audio production was okay. To me, I found it a little unpolished when compared to other books, but none of the bothered my daughter. For young listeners though, I feel that these extra audio elements can make a big difference in holding their attention and engagement.
This was an enjoyable story for me and my daughter to listen to, however I don’t know if she would have got through it alone. Some parts were a little scary for her, so maybe I’d recommend towards the top of the age range of the book. Some darker themes such as the suspense, kidnapping and the overall weird eeriness of the city itself may be a bit for younger kids.