Unwritten by Tara Gilboy

My name is Gracie, and I should have trusted my mother. I now know I shouldn't have gone to the author's book-signing, and I shouldn't have let her sign the parchment. How was I to know she’d disappear? My mom wouldn't have been captured by Queen Cassandra, and I wouldn't have had to enter a portal into the storybook land of Bondoff. My mom told me the author had me killed by the queen in the original story, but I’ve now learned that I was the actual evil character. My behavior is being pulled by the story, but there’s some way for it to be rewritten. If not, my friend Walter will die a fiery death.

This book had a creative premise with Gracie and her mother escaping from inside a story by traveling to the "real world". She had disturbing dreams about Cassandra but didn't know much about her previous life. The author added a unique twist to the plot once the setting returned to Bondoff. The characters were controlled by the words previously written in the story, except for Cassandra and Gracie. This complicated things for Gracie, since her mom didn't remember anything about events outside the story. If I could change the book, I would have given examples of the queen’s evilness to build suspense. All of the characters said she was bad, but the worst  example ended up not being true. I typically like to learn about characters by their own actions and words, so I wanted to see more about the queen. The plot was easy to read and moved along swiftly. Younger middle grade readers should love it!