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The Addams Family meets Despicable Me in the first book of this new trilogy, perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Pseudonymous Bosch! The Crim family is full of notorious criminals. Notoriously inept, that is. Uncle Knuckles once tried to steal a carnival. Great-Uncle Bernard held himself hostage by accident. Aunt Drusilla died slipping on a banana peel. But Imogen is different. She was born with a skill for scandal. A knack for the nefarious. A mastery of misdemeanors. Despite her natural talent for all things unlawful, Imogen got out of the family business years ago. But when the rest of the Crims are accused of pulling off a major heist--which seems doubtful, to say the least--Imogen is forced to step in to clear their names. Because only a truly skilled criminal can prove the bumbling family's innocence....… (more)
User reviews
This book just was not my cup of tea. For starters, I just can't conceive of recommending a book to a child that begins with the main character being a more or less model citizen and ends with her embracing a life of crime. Furthermore, the consequences for crime seem minimal, which is so far removed from reality that I again struggle to recommend this title to young readers. While I don't think children need to be exposed to all the harsh realities of prison life, I also don't think they should be given a view of prison where the entire family is allowed to be kept together, visitors can stop in whenever, knitting needles are acceptable for a prisoner to have, etc. You could make the argument that little of this book resembles reality and hope that kids will make the distinction, but personally I would hesitate to recommend it unless I knew the child was mature enough.
The writing style is okay. The beginning is a bit slow but eventually the book starts to pick up. There were some amusing puns and wordplay, but I think much of the humor would be over the intended audience's heads. For instance, how many kids are really going to get and enjoy a John Travolta reference? The characterizations beyond Imogen and Freddie are very one-note, which is disappointing for someone like me who loves character development. On the other hand, those who read more for adventurous plots might enjoy this title more than I did. Several of the twists were predictable (although perhaps younger readers might be more surprised), most especially the big reveal that
Oddly enough, on paper it seems like this book would be good for fans of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books, but I LOVED those and didn't really care for this. Perhaps others will disagree...