Hello friends, happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all having a good week so far! Today I’m posting my review of book one in the Curiosity House trilogy, The Shrunken Head by: Lauren Oliver.

The Shrunken Head by: Lauren Oliver: Philippa, Sam, Thomas and newly joined, Max are orphans with rare and unbelievable abilities at Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities and Wonders. One day when the museum’s Amazonian shrunken head is stolen, the four children make it their mission to find out who did it and why. This novel had potential, but it lacked in world building for this reader. We never really get established in the world; instead, we’re dropped into the story and left to try and figure it all out. It felt like a lot happened in this novel, and yet the plot still felt a little boring, as if the pacing didn’t move well enough. The reader really wanted to like this because it was full of mystery, unusual and extraordinary characters, but it was just missing elements that could make it great. The reader didn’t really feel any attachment to the characters, either. They were all developed enough that you could tell who was who, but they still lacked some depth, which if this trilogy continues with these characters, the reader hopes to get more development from them. The addition of the illustrations was fun and definitely gave a little more to the story. In the end, this was an alright start to a trilogy; there was something there that made it special, and the reader would like to pick up the second novel to see if this world and its characters open up more to make it a little more sensational.