With their parents gone, no one would be around to obstruct their “data collection” efforts. That was what Zed called it anyway, But Tuesday preferred not to sugarcoat things: they wanted to snoop.
4 out of 5 Stars
Relatively Normal Secrets is a fast paced and engaging tale that follows two siblings, Tuesday and Zed, as they try to uncover the secrets their parents have been keeping from them.
This was a fun and quirky read. Instantly we are thrown into this world where Tuesday and Zed are two siblings who are so suspicious of their parents. They have no knowledge of what their dad does for work, they have no extended family and when ever the two try to find answers their parents expertly navigate a change of subject. And that’s not even taking into account their mother’s giant dog that Zed is overly suspicious of.
It doesn’t take long for the story to take a turn and the kids are separated from their parent and are pulled into another world where everything just gets increasingly weird for them.
The story focuses on Tuesday and Zed learning how to rely on themselves while also working together in the face of danger while trying to find their parents in this new strange world. We get to see them bicker and fight but then come together to solve their problems. They also have very distinct personalities from each other which shows wonderfully throughout the story. The other half focuses on the tyrant who has taken over the world that they get magically transported too, and eventually these two story lines collide and I wont lie, as an adult, I was shocked. I had one theory for how they where going to met up but I was only half right, I managed to miss some of the other earlier clues, so I feel kids will be taken back with surprise when they get to that part.
The story has a lot of magic thrown in, the changing weapons was my favorite and it made for the fight scene to be more intense but still fun to follow along with. There is also a nice amount of advanced technology, can I have those self teeth cleaning orbs please, those sound amazing. Also keep an eye on that giant Dog, she was something else alright!
I loved how the author used existing nursery rhymes in this tale, it added a new and fun element to the story that I haven’t seen done before. The way they are used are fun and engaging and as long as the reader knows them they will catch the subtle changes to them the minute they start popping up. I did start to wonder which rhyme was going to come up next.
I will say the end is kind of bold step, it wraps up the main plot for the story but at the same time leaves on a pretty intense cliffhanger because all the secrets are reveled literally at the end. Its not often I come across MG books that do this and for me I want to come back, so I hope this works and gets any kids who pick this up excited to come back as well.
The only bit I didn’t care to much about was all the lists that Zed made in the story. I understand that it was part of how he processed information, but it ended up only repeating information that we had just gotten a page or two prior, so it didn’t really serve a purpose to the story aside from further explaining Zeds personality.
All in all it was adventurous, lighthearted and fast paced with some intriguing elements. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the sequel.
Special Thanks to Booksirens for providing me with a review copy, I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Release Date: September 7th, 2021
Intotheheartwyld 