All About Middle Grade Review: 5 Times Revenge

5 Times Revenge by Lindsay Eland, June 7, 2016. 384 pages. Published by Greenwillow. Source: publisher.

Five unlikely friends. Two bullies. One epic prank. Part The Breakfast Club and part The View from Saturday, this funny, heartwarming novel about friendship and standing up for yourself will appeal to fans of Chris Grabenstein and Jennifer L. Holm.

Adam is the prank mastermind. Perk is his best friend and the computer genius. Pearl is the prettiest girl in school—and a violin prodigy. Ray looks like a big dumb jock, but he secretly wants to be an engineer. And Dutch is the often-bullied dork who is in tune with everyone’s feelings. The five of them couldn’t be more different. But there’s one thing they have in common: they are fed up with Hill Parmar, the school bully—and his dad, their school principal, who is always turning a blind eye. When Hill finally steps over the line, the five unlikely schemers band together for a prank like nothing Mt. Nittany Middle School has ever seen before.

First Sentence:

Not many eighth graders arrive early to their middle school in the morning, at least not on purpose.

I have been waiting over two months to post my review for this one. I was just testing it out, the day it arrived in the post, and ended up devouring the entire book in one evening. I just could not walk away from the story as I needed to know how things turned out for them.

• At times, 5 Times Revenge had me thinking about Ocean's Eleven. It was mainly the friendship between Adam and Perk, as it made me think of Danny and Rusty. Don't believe me, you may need to see my This Book is So post to see why I thought that. Between the pranks to get even/back at the Parmar's, I just kept thinking about heist-like movies.

• I admit it, I like middle grade revenge books. Reason being, they come up with the craziest, most elaborate plans to get even. So, what I liked about this one was that there was a lot of thought and planning put into their prank. It was nice to see that they realized that some of their suggestions were just not doable; so little bit of thought to consequences and overall outcome.

• As much as I liked the revenge aspect it was the friendships that  really made this book. Okay that and seeing those jerks get what they deserved. Sometimes, the highs and lows of friendship is what really makes a good book, and this book did just that. If you remove the context of the book, that of revenge, you have a book that has fairly realistic friendships. Which I think is something that could be more present in books.

• Having never read anything Lindsay Eland before, I had no idea what to expect from her writing style. Would her writing be funny or dry. So, I was excited to find that her writing, at least in 5 Times Revenge, was totally absorbing. While I cannot vouch for her other books, this one was a lot of fun to read.

Final Verdict: 5 Times Revenge- Revenge and friendship mixed with fast paced writing makes this a fun read. Perfect for summer, I think!!

5 Times Revenge earns

An advanced copy of this book was received in consideration for review. All thoughts are my own.