Thursday, October 31, 2019

Book Review: The Witch Port Video Game

Happy Halloween! Do you do anything for Halloween? Do you dress up? I do not, and I haven't dressed up since I was... 14? Of course, we take the kids trick or treating but this year I think it's only Penelope and Lucy with us. I'm supposed to take Olivia and her friend to "the good part of town" and then they are going to a party. I'm not sure what Jackson is doing, hopefully he got that figured out, and I hope the weather just gets nice for a solid hour so we aren't freezing with a couple of preschoolers whining to go home and demanding to keep getting more candy at the same time.

OK, so today I have a quick review for you (seriously, the book is just over 100 pages) and then I am going to take a nap. I'm so excited. For all of it. Ha!

The Witch Port Video Game - Leonard Bassed

The tale of three school friends who played a video game.

The game seems awesome at first until a series of strange events occur which mirror what happens on screen. This is followed by the mysterious arrival of the MacQuoid brothers, with Bianca as their co-conspirator. The three newcomers are identical to characters in the game.

The friends get a little more than they bargained for when they start exhibiting supernatural abilities. What ensues is the ultimate battle for power, while trying to maintain the perfect GPA.

You don't choose sorcery -
She chooses you... 


I should start and tell you I know next to nothing about video games, computer games, anything like either of those, and so I struggled a bit with the concept of how this would happen. Yes, I get that it's a fictional story but the best part of reading is trying to imagine the story as real,, so while I couldn't quite do that, this was an interesting story nonetheless. It almost felt like it could be an episode of a television show that you would inevitably get sucked into.

Novellas are generally quick reads but this one is just over 100 pages so I was able to get through it in just under two hours, so you'll have no problem doing that with this, and since it's a YA novella (first in a series) your teenager can read this without feeling overwhelmed. Perfect for reluctant readers and the supernatural element of this will keep them hooked until the last page. Also, it is fast paced. The author does not mess around with meaningless setting details or character development (Though, I kind of wish we had a little more of that but I'm assuming in each book we'll get more pieces of each of them? Maybe?)- we get right to the action and it's go-go-go until the last page. Again, if you have a teen with a short attention span for books, this will hold their attention- trust me.

What we learn in this book is anyone named Bianca you should maybe steer clear from and you shouldn't play video games. I mean, that's what I got from it. Ha! I loved the supernatural pieces, I loved how you never knew what exactly was going on or why, and I really enjoyed the voice of this author. It isn't as refined as we're used to seeing it and I'm here for it because it stands out.

The only critiques I have is the print is so small. Holy hannah. The font they use is great, the size is a bit too small. Also, when they have dialogue, it's not separated. So two characters are speaking in the same paragraph, if that makes sense? Most of the time I was fine because the author indicated who said what but there are some areas where I had to look back to figure out who would be saying what, and that got a little dicey. Overall though, this was pretty entertaining and I'm looking forward to the second book because this one ends kind of dramatically? I won't say it's a cliff hanger because it isn't really, but it's enough that I wish I had book two here to see what happens next. 3 stars!

A huge thanks to Pump Up Your Book for putting me on this tour but also The Barrett Company Communications and Leonard Bassed making sure I got a copy. You can buy a copy of this book on Leonard's website.

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