Magdalena Gottschalk #1: The Crooked Trail by M. Gail Grant

My name is Magdalena. Gabriel, Hubert, and I only wanted to explore, but we seem to have awakened something demonic. The others couldn't hear the noises and voices, but they stayed with me as we ventured through the dark cave and into the giant, vacant treehouse. I felt like we were being controlled and lured along. We've since learned some adults in our village know about the noises and voices, and they held a secret meeting in the dungeon below the church. Gabriel and I hid behind the dungeon's stone walls, and again, he couldn't hear the adults confirm our worst fears. However, I was stunned to discover how different I am from my friends, and I may be the only one who can save our town.

I think the target audience may have been toward the lower end of middle grade readers. The plot was interesting but slow-moving, especially in the beginning. Characters retold previously described events to their friends, rather than summarizing, which was like a teacher re-explaining something in class that everyone else already knew. The characters were creeped out by their strange encounters, but the evidence was so vague that it didn't create any kind of emotional reaction in me. The threat to the village was identified, but the actual danger wasn't really developed. The vocabulary used by the kids was more formal than expected. It felt strange to hear them not use contractions when speaking to each other, and some words seemed more mature than young kids might use. With all that being said, I enjoyed the concept of the plot and characters. A village was being hidden from an evil force, and young children inadvertently awakened the danger. I don't think the book lived up to what it could have been, but it still had entertaining moments.