Goodreads link for book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23507745-serafina-and-the-black-cloak
Author's website: https://robertbeattybooks.com/
Genres: Fantasy, Children's, Fiction,
Rating: 2.5 stars
Mature Content: 1 (low violent content)
Age Range: 11+
Interest level: About 11-13
Background Knowledge: Serafina lives in a basement of the Biltmore Estate with her father without the knowledge of any of the residents. When Serafina witnesses a man in a black cloak kidnap a girl, she teams up with a friend to stop the man from kidnapping anyone else.
Review: I must say, I had much higher expectations for this book. I honestly just skimmed through a lot of it, because was able to understand most of it and it took much less time. I don't generally like to give bad reviews, but I must say that this book wasn't one of my favorites. I found it somewhat boring and a little repetitive with names and stuff. For example, "The Man in the Black Cloak" was referred to many times throughout a few paragraphs, without calling him, say "the man" or something to make it less repetitive. It also had a few major plot holes, that show that the story wasn't as thoroughly developed as it could have been. I think that, with a few changes, this book could have been much better.
Things I Loved:
-It's kind of obvious, but it was a short, easy read, since it only took me about two hours to read.
Things I Didn't Love:
-For one, the repetitiveness and "lack" of creativity on some levels
-The plot holes. For example, one of the plot holes that (skipped for the sake of spoilers) really left me confused, and thinking, are these two kids really friends?
In Conclusion: If you want a fast read, that is at a lower reading level, than you'll probably enjoy it. I personally may have enjoyed it if I would have read it a couple years back. Overall, for my age, I'd give it 2.5, but if read in 5-7 grade, it would've most likely landed a 4.
Recommended?: No