Book Review: The Book of Ralph by Christopher Steinsvold

Like so many other readers (apparently), this one lost me somewhere in the middle… I really liked the concept and the beginning (and the cover). It felt fresh and snarky and original and I was entertained by its slams of pop culture and novel take on aliens. Ralph was cute without being saccharine-sweet; Markus was a great straight man and the perfect foil. I even liked that the evil, world-consuming aliens were Kardashians, from the planet Kardash… It felt tongue-in-cheek and wry and those are always wins in my book.

Then the first Bad Thing happens, leading up to the invasion, and I just felt like the book jumped the shark… (Yes, I went with a Happy Days reference – and for those of you too young to get the reference OR know what HD was, Google it… You won’t be sorry.) The style and references that felt fresh and clever started feeling like jokes rehashed until the punch lines lose all meaning. And then it just started feeling ridiculous – even for the type of book it was. That may have been the satirical point – but even if it was, it stopped being fun to read and started feeling like a slog to keep turning pages.

My review copy was provided by NetGalley.