This book felt a little bit younger than what I usually read but it was enjoyable. It was kind of like Nancy Drew meets Veronica Mars. Cummings had some really good dialogue and humor in the story. Plus, there were some geeky references thrown in that had me laughing. I liked Julie and Marcus a lot and thought that they seemed like normal teenagers. I would like to see how the characters grow in future books (which I assume there's going to be more). I'm also really digging the relationship between Julie and her mother. You can tell that there's going to be more there. I liked that she's an actual mother to Julie and tries to protect her instead of be Julie's best friend. And Julie really wants her mother's approval. That desire to please her mother is what got Julie involved in the mess in this book to begin with.

Cummings has a lot of room to grow with this series and the potential for character and world development is there. This is a good building block for what could become a great series. ( )

This review can also be found on my blog The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl.

Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings was such a light, refreshing read. I won this book off of a blog competition, and I'm so glad I did. I absolutely loved it!

Julie Richardson is a 15 year old witch. She's her mother's apprentice. However, when her mother's soul is stolen by something evil, Julie must step up and try to do everything in her power to save her mother. In the process, she is also putting her own life in danger as an evil poltergeist is after her, one who hates witches. This poltergeist will stop at nothing to make sure Julie is dead.

I love the title to this book. I don't think it suits the book 100%, but it's a funny title. I don't really understand where the geek bit comes in as there was no mention of any kind of geek. Julie's best friend Marcus is a bit of a geek but that's about it.

The cover of the book is awesome! I think it matches the story very much. Julie looks to be levitating (which she seems to do a lot in this book against her will), and she's got her trusty amulet that helps her to focus her magic. The cover of this book reminds me of the scene when she's in the old lady's house trying to rid it of poltergeist activity.

I love the pacing of this book!! It kept my attention throughout every chapter. I don't think there was one chapter where I felt bored. The pacing of the book is on track all the way through.

The world building and setting were great. I loved how it took place in a normal town in normal Canada. The setting of the high school where the poltergeist activity takes place is my favourite. =)

The dialogue was easy to understand. However, there are quite a bit of swear words in this book so be warned if you're not big on swearing. I don't think there were too many swear words, nothing over the top or anything. I think the swearing fit in with how 15 year old kids would talk.

I loved all the characters!!! Julie was such a funny character, and I mean funny in the haha sense. I loved her comic timing!! I thought it was brilliant. I loved how Marcus was always into his science how how shocked he was when he couldn't scientifically explain the paranormal goings-on. Betty brought in some humour as well, and I thought she represented a guardian quite well. As for Marla, I don't really like the way the author portrayed her as the stereotypical goth. I've always been irked when goths are stereotyped so that's one thing that got on my nerves.

The plot was really good. I felt it was semi-original as well. It was a bit predictive though, and I already had it figured out who the bad guy was, but it was still a great story nonetheless.

Overall, I felt that Poltergeeks was a great read, and I'd definitely recommend it for those ages 15 . I'm looking forward to the second book in the series coming out!

I'd give this book a 4.5 out of 5. ( )

Julie's a witch. So is her Mom. And even though Julie's still in training, sometimes things come up that she tries to handle on her own. Like the poltergeist that's kicked an elderly lady out of her house. Things don't go as well as Julie hopes, and trouble follows her home, and to school. When the poltergeist strikes again, Julie calls her Mom for backup, and that's where things really go wrong. With only her physics geek best friend (and maybe love interest? Julie isn't sure yet) Marcus, Julie has to make some scary alliances and figure out how to get rid of the ghosts, the evil behind them, and save her Mom's soul.

I liked Julie. I liked her a lot. In many was, I was Julie when I was that age. She's a teenager, meaning sometimes she acts like a child and the next minute she acts like an adult. She loves her Mom--as a matter of fact, her relationship with her mother is one of the most important ones she has. And she maybe, just maybe, loves Marcus. ( )

Poltergeeks was an absorbing, fun read. I especially enjoyed the fearless main character, Julie. Facing supernatural elements head-on, this teenage witch has more than her fair share of obstacles. I would highly recommend this book if you want to be entertained from start to finish! ( )

I wish I was the sensible sort of person who could easily give up on a book, because I knew from very early on that this one wasn't really working for me, but once I start something I have this compulsion to finish it. And I wanted to like this one, because it sounded interesting and I love finding things unapologetically set in Canada. (But then, when don't I want to like a book that I pick up to read?)

Fundamentally, the problem for me was with voice, which struck me as uneven throughout. It often read like some of the asides and turns of phrase in the narrative were thrown in as an afterthought. (Julie's actions, however, were very apt for a teenager--frustrating and annoying, but authentic.) There were other problems with the writing too, though--there are a lot of cliché descriptions on top of a lot of infodump up front in the book, among other (predominantly style) issues.

While I appreciated the realistic mother-daughter relationship (and wish we'd seen more of it), it could've done without the bit that assumed all female friendships inevitably ended in catfights. Classy.

Maybe I'm being too hard on it, because there were bits and pieces that I liked (such as the tension between Julie and Marla in Julie's mom's hospital room) and I think there's a good premise here, but it just didn't come together in the execution. ( )