Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
2.5 rounded up

I feel like I was kind on the rating here, but that's primarily because I can see younger kids enjoying this, and I am not a young kid. Usually that doesn't put up a barrier with me and middle grade fiction, but I think it did here. It feels very much like a self-insert Gary Stu story, but hey. Sometimes it's just fun to see those, and probably even more fun for the intended audience of this book, which feels like the lower end of middle grade readers.

The pacing in this book is extremely fast, and the magic system is pretty unexplained, but the world of Whimsphere was fun. It was a comfy fairy tale/mythical creature vibe world. There were also some pleasant vibes of older books, though maybe I'm just being influenced because I recently watched IT. Whatever it was, the group of friends investigating things just for a bully situation to push them into the unknown gave me the same vibes as books closer to the 2000s. And then something at the end definitely gave me Harry Potter-Voldemort vibes xD

Overall, though, I personally found the book pretty surface level and too quickly paced, with lots of convenience and unexplained things. But still giving it the wiggle room of being a difference in the intended audience and me.

What a whimsical and charming story! The main character reminded me so much of how my younger brother would act in a similar situation—full of curiosity and mischief. I absolutely adored the world-building; it was imaginative, mystical, and tinged with just the right amount of darkness to keep things intriguing. Although there were moments when it felt a little overwhelming, the engaging nature of the story more than made up for it. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book—it transported me back to the magic of my childhood

So so so good. Loved every second of this book and I couldn't put it down for a bit. I enjoyed every detail of it. I rated it 4 stars because I loved the plot and characters were immaculate.

I asked for this because I have 3 grandsons, 9,11, and 14 whom I thought might enjoy it. The story and adventures are directed at that age range, but the quality of the writing is terrible. Grammar and sentence structure is fine, but the general story structure is awful--it sounds like something the 14 year old would write for a school assignment to write a story. The book has potential, but I would not recommend it unless the story telling is improved.