City of Secrets

“A secret isn’t worth anything unless we keep it from the wrong people and tell it to the right people” (pg 131)

I immediately liked the watercolor, coffee-stained illustrations. You can tell a lot of thought was put into the characters' designs and color schemes. The adventure is all here with moving levers and clockwork, baddies, and two wholesome kiddies trying to save the day. But, sometimes, the movement is difficult to follow, and I lacked a connection with the characters. I didn't feel any emotion at all. The random robot part was cool. Although the loose ends are tied, the ending felt abrupt to me.

2.5

2021 book #47. 2020. My daughter, who loves stuff like this, got this from the library while visiting. I read it too. Sure, it's for kids, but it's well written and well illustrated. 2 teens uncover a secret and save their city from destruction.

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the City of Secrets series. I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my son.

Story (3/5): This book focuses on the Switchboard Operating Facility and the characters who work, live, and visit there. Lisa is one of the operators who keeps an eye on the mysterious boy Ever. Ever is charged with keeping a very big secret that his father told him about before his father was killed. Hannah is the daughter of the building owner and determined to ferret out Ever’s secrets. Little did any of them know that the whole secret ties back to mysterious secret society and the government.

The story here was okay. My son started reading this but never finished it because he said it was boring and I can show more understand why he said that. The story definitely lags at points and gets super political and a bit complex. I found my mind wandering a number of times while reading this and really had to make myself stay focused and finish it.

Characters (4/5): The characters in here are fine. I loved that they had a bit of complexity to them. All of them have secrets, except maybe for Hannah who is blissfully ignorant of most of the goings on until she gets involved with Ever and Lisa. I didn’t find any of them to be very relatable, but for a middle grade graphic novel they were well done enough.

Setting (4/5): We don’t get to see much of the city outside of the Switchboard Operating Facility. It seems like this could be a pretty awesome world and setting, but we have a very narrow focus in this book. I did like uncovering the secrets of this unique Facility building. A lot of the gears and cranks in this building give this book a bit of a steampunk feel.

Writing/Drawing Style (3/5): I enjoyed the unique drawing style a lot; although occasionally it was a bit hard to figure out what was happening. The writing was okay, the story lagged at points and I feel like this got kind of complicated for a middle grade novel. At first the story seems like it’s going to be a fun mystery adventure but then all of the sudden Ever is dodging people trying to kill him and secret societies and the government gets involved. It ends up having a kind of weird vibe and the story doesn’t really fit into the middle grade category even though it’s marketed as such.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall this ended up being okay but I didn’t love it. The drawing style is nice and I liked how things started out. I enjoyed the steampunk vibe to this as well. Unfortunately, the story was kind of slow and the plot got kind of convoluted and too political for my taste. This is one of those books that I struggle to figure out what age group it’s aimed at. It gets a bit violent and politically complicated for middle grade readers, but I don’t really think it will appeal to adults either. I wanted to love this but don’t plan on continuing with the series at this point. show less

I loved the concept and the artwork for this book, and even though the writing is not particularly strong, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story.

The character drawing is excellent. But the machinery and architecture that plays a big part of the story uses a very fluid muddy style, which makes it almost impossible to follow. The style for the machinery should have been very precise, like a blueprint.

The story itself is ok.

This is the first book in the City of Secrets series.
City Of Secrets is a steampunk graphic novel that tells the story of a shy orphan girl named Hannah and Ever and their fight to save the city of Oskars. When Hannah learns that Ever has secrets about the city he learned from his dead father. They embark on an adventure to uncover the secrets of a safe within their city! They learn that the secrete ties back to a secret society and government. While some parts are definably slower than others and the writing can get a little too political for the audience of this title
The art is warm and complements this steampunk era. The characters are likable. Grades 4 to 6.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇Exceeded my expectations!⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Highly recommended for older elementary school readers and middle grade readers, but this book can also be wonderful for adults as well. If you like intrigue, mysteries, adventure, fantasy, scifi, and/or steampunk, City of Secrets might be right up your alley!