Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy by Melissa de la Cruz

Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy by Melissa de la Cruz was an enjoyable middle grade about a middle school girl, Filomena Jefferson-Cho who finds herself whisked away from the real world into the fairy tail world of her favorite books series. The story itself was entertaining, and I feel that while I didn't like it as much as I had hoped, I'm not the target audience. As an adult, I found a lot of plot holes, unnecessary gaps, and big chunks of time jumped where things happened quickly, but needed, in my opinion, to be explained more.

I can understand the appeal to middle grade readers. Filomena is an awkward child, overprotected by the parents who adopted her, and picked on by the school bullies. A character many middle grade readers can empathize with. And as many middle grade readers also imagine and dream about, she is wisked away to a world where she is no longer awkward, but one of the key heroes. A very fun and relatable tale for younger readers. This book was first published in 2020.