Emily the Strange: Piece of Mind

Emily the Strange: Piece of Mind

I finished the last novel in the four-novel set of Emily the Strange novels by Rob Reger.  I read the previous novels and actually really liked them. The second novel in the set (Stranger & Stranger) was my favorite. The first and third novels have black dust jackets, the second is red, and this last one is white.  I think that I would have liked this one to be red like the second:  the white is really different when all the books are together on the bookshelf.

However, if you peel off the dust jacket to this book, the actual cover of the book has the coolest, glossiest cover ever seen on a book. Okay, that might be an exaggeration – but the cover is quite nice.  I really appreciate it and it’s like a secret bonus to the book.

I liked the overall storyline followed in all four of the books, it was interesting, had recurring characters of interest, and was dark enough to be “cool” to read.  I think it took me two days to read it – in my sporadic reading pattern. I liked the glossy, heavyweight pages and, as always, the art throughout the book was excellent and fun.

Nevertheless, I liked this book the least of the four.  I disliked the use of the Transcripto machine. I felt that Emily did not give us near as many of her fantastic made-up “profanities.” I disliked the way the story took Raven away from us – Raven has definitely grown on me. Also, Emily spent a large portion of this book not really being the truly awesome Emily that she is in the other books. This is not to say that this was a bad book.  It did neatly conclude the overall storyline, and it did contain nice art, sufficient material for chuckling, cute cats, and silly hijinks. Still, this one was not as good as the previous three.

And, honestly, I’m sad because it’s only a four-book series. And I so enjoyed reading these, I hate to see them be finished. I really hope this franchise does more with Emily. She’s a great character with a lot of potential. I don’t give a rip if she seems “gothic” or “emo” or “trendy” or even a “sellout.”  Emily is great and I enjoyed the time spent with her and her wonderful cats.

2 stars