“Some Kind of Happiness” by Claire Legrand: A Book Review

Some Kind of Happiness

Claire Legrand

Contemporary Middle-Grade; Mystery

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

October 31, 2023

Audiobook

Library

Things Finley Hart doesn’t want to talk about:
-Her parents, who are having problems. (But they pretend like they’re not.)
-Being sent to her grandparents’ house for the summer.
-Never having met said grandparents.
-Her blue days—when life feels overwhelming, and it’s hard to keep her head up. (This happens a lot.)

Finley’s only retreat is the Everwood, a forest kingdom that exists in the pages of her notebook. Until she discovers the endless woods behind her grandparents’ house and realizes the Everwood is real—and holds more mysteries than she’d ever imagined, including a family of pirates that she isn’t allowed to talk to, trees covered in ash, and a strange old wizard living in a house made of bones.

With the help of her cousins, Finley sets out on a mission to save the dying Everwood and uncover its secrets. But as the mysteries pile up and the frightening sadness inside her grows, Finley realizes that if she wants to save the Everwood, she’ll first have to save herself.

I think I should preface this review with a few things:

1. This book is not poorly written. In fact, the writing and character development was good.
2. The issue I had with this book wasn’t necessarily the book itself, but rather the unmet expectations I had because of the description of the book.
3. The expectations I had going in were what made me pick up the book, and since those weren’t met, I didn’t enjoy the story as much as I could have. But that doesn’t make the story objectively bad – it just makes it not my thing.

Alright. Onto the review.

Firstly, here are some positives:

1. I liked that this book tackled some more difficult topics, like anxiety, depression, and difficult-to-deal-with family. I think middle-grade books shouldn’t shy away from these topics, and I do think that they were handled with the necessary level of grace.
2. I liked the kids (aka the main characters). All the cousins were fairly easy to keep track of and fun to “hang out with,” while reading the book.
3. (Mild Spoilers) I liked that this had a relatively happy ending.

Now…onto the things I didn’t like as much (most of which are fairly spoiler-heavy – so feel free to skip if you like!).

SPOILER SECTION

Part One: Unmet Expectations

I picked up this story expecting a fantasy novel. On both Goodreads and StoryGraph, it was listed as a fantasy novel. The description said that this fantastical world known as the Everwood is discovered to be real in the pages of this story, as you can see up above. I sat down to listen to this book, excited to discover a world of fantastical creatures in this little girl’s backyard. But that isn’t what I found.

The Everwood is not real . I think this is an important distinction, and what makes this story not fall under the fantasy genre for me. The Everwood is real, in a way, to the kids but is not, in actuality, a fantastical forest with magical creatures inside of it on their grandparents’ property. It’s a game that they play, and stories that they make up.

While the forest is treated as fantasy by the characters of the book, having its own underlying lore and story, it’s a story that’s written within the pages of the main story itself, by the main character. Because of that, there’s a constant reminder that this story isn’t actually happening – it’s a coping mechanism for the main character who’s going through really hard things.

While some people might enjoy this “twist,” I did not. To me, it felt like when you read through a story and it ends with, “…And it turned out that it was all a dream.” It took away a lot of the whimsy and wonder that’s usually found in fantasy, and made the world surface-level and uninteresting.

On top of that, because this fantasy world isn’t real, and it (“it” being a fantasy forest and the journey a group of kids literally goes on through said fantasy forest) is NOT the main focus of the story, it’s hard to feel drawn into it. Which isn’t bad if you’re going into this book looking for a middle-grade contemporary mystery (because that’s what the main focus of the story is) but it is bad if you’re going in looking for a middle-grade fantasy along the lines of Spiderwick, The Underland Chronicles, or Percy Jackson.

I do want to just drive home this point: There’s nothing inherently wrong with this story not being a fantasy story. Not every story needs to be. The world needs contemporary mystery novels just as much as it needs fantasy novels. But I was promised a real fantasy forest, and I didn’t get it. That’s the issue I had with this book. Unmet expectations.

Does that make the story bad? NO. Does it make it not my genre? Yes.

Because of that, I wasn’t able to enjoy this as much as someone who loves a good contemporary mystery novel would enjoy this. If you do love contemporary mystery that has good character development and handles some relevant topics, you would probably really like this story. I didn’t because it wasn’t my genre, but it’s not by any means a BAD story.

Part Two: Clueless Adults

I do understand that adults don’t notice everything going on in a kid’s life, and it can be trying on both the adults and the kids. However…not a single adult (not her parents, aunts and uncles, or grandpa) except for her grandmother (hundreds of pages into the book, mind you) noticed that the main character, Finley, was suffering with depression and anxiety as a 10-year-old. None of them.

Don’t get me wrong. I know some adults can be major jerks. But every single one of them – even the ones who care about her and aren’t mean to her – missing the fact that she’s clearly struggling with these things? I don’t buy it.

Again. That could just be me. But I would think that someone before her estranged grandmother would notice she was struggling and try to do something about it.

On a similar note, though, I do think some interactions between Finley and the adults around her seemed unrealistic. All of the adults in this book were wholly wrapped up in themselves. They were wrapped up in what was going on in their lives to the point of being mean (repeatedly) to a little girl who messed up a couple of times.

Again, I know adults can be jerks. They really can. But it seemed like there were just some character inconsistencies. Why did Finley still like her grandmother, after all of the awful things she said to and about her? Why didn’t Finley want to leave, after how mean the adults had been to her in the past? This is especially true of the grandma, but other adults were careless, clueless, or mean to her at least once in the book, and I don’t understand why she wouldn’t at least walk away from that wanting nothing to do with them.

Forgiveness is a great thing – but I found this level of forgiveness in a 10-year-old who had been treated poorly by these grown-ups kind of unrealistic. And I also found some of the grown-ups actions in regards to similar things…weird? Not accurate? I don’t know how to word it. It just felt kind of off.

Part Three: Was this book super long, or was that just me?

I was listening to this book, not reading it, but it just felt really long for a middle-grade contemporary fiction mystery novel disguised as a fantasy book. I looked up the paperback length – it’s nearly 400 pages. Middle-grade books can be 400 pages and be fantastic – The Underland Chronicles is just one example of this – but Some Kind of Happiness just…well, it felt long. It felt like it dragged on. It didn’t feel like it needed to be as long as it was.

But maybe that was just me.

END OF SPOILERS

In my opinion, this book is a contemporary mystery novel, tackling difficult topics like anxiety, depression, family issues, divorce, and more. It’s well written, with intriguing characters and good twists and turns. If that sounds like your kind of read, definitely check this one out!

Overall, because of a mix of my enjoyment of certain parts and having certain things I didn’t quite connect with, I give this book 3 stars.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments down below!