Book Review: The Glade by Naseem Jamnia

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Genre: Horror Fantasy
Age: Middle Grade
Format: ebook

 

 

The Glade is a delightful Middle Grade read that will certainly appeal to young readers who enjoy a touch of the magical, if scary, in stories about friendships, shenanigans, and cursed forests. Although for younger readers, this book still examines some pretty tough themes including racism, dysfunctional families, mental illness, gender identity, immigration, and cultural identity, while a group of friends battle against a glowing glade full of delirium inducing mushrooms at their summer camp.

 

Our main character is Pina, an Iranian-American from a strict family who has high expectations of her. For the first time ever, Pina has been allowed to stay away from her critical and controlling parents at a summer camp with her best friend Jo. Pina is determined to embrace this new found freedom as a chance to reinvent herself and become Pina 2.0.

 

Pina and Jo make friends with some of the other nerdy kids who don’t quite fit in with the β€˜cool’ crowd. I really loved these characters, especially how kind they were to each other, and how much they supported each while still holding one another accountable for mean behaviour. The author managed to balance some truly scary moments (involving giant spiders!) with Middle Grade humour for a book that inches toward horror. Some of the scenes could cause nightmares in more sensitive young readers, as the giant spiders and nightmare versions of Pina’s parents were described in fairly gory detail, resulting in some disturbing imagery.

 

I only have two minor gripes. 1) Despite Jo making it clear that they preferred she/they pronouns, Pina only ever refers to Jo as she/her right up until the very end of the book. I didn't love this, especially when other friends at the camp were using a mix of pronouns as Jo requested. It was never addressed or challenged on page and this frustrated me considering how much Pina claimed to support her friend. 2) The origin of the titular Glade or how it works and what is truly going on is never fully or adequately explained in my opinion. The ending for the villain is a little anticlimactic and I was hoping for more, but perhaps this leaves the door open for more stories set at Camp Clear Skies.

 

Speaking as a teacher, I think this book would work wonderfully for a Grade 3 or 4 reading group, allowing for important discussions on identity, inclusion, and friendship as well as when to question authority figures and how to have difficult conversations with grown-ups who aren't ready or able to listen. Overall, I think this is a fantastic Middle Grade book tackling really important themes that will be enjoyed by readers younger and older, unless they hate spiders, or mushrooms!

 

Purchase Link

 

Review By Xan van Rooyen
Instagram: xan_writer
Twitter: Xan_Writer
Bluesky: xanwriter.bsky.social

 

I received this ebook directly from the author for review consideration.



 
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