Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
This one had me at the dedication “To all the weird kids. Stay weird.” I was a weird kid, I feel like I am still weird.
Jake is ‘fell to Earth in a flaming blob of space goo, sprouting feathers in class kind of weird. I already like him. The book starts with him getting ready for his first day of middle school. He is doing his best not to shape shift. He has been warned that doing so might cause “them” to come. Them being: police, government agencies, or really anyone.
Jake meets a new friend at school named Agnes. They bond over their mutual love of a comic character called Night Kite. Agnes is intense but Jake still likes hanging out with her.
One day at school, Agnes and Jake see a sinkhole form (terrifying! But they aren’t as scared as I would have been). In that sinkhole, they find some goo. Very much like the goo Jake came from. Why is there more goo? Where is it coming from? Agnes wants to study the goo and so does Jake but for very different reasons.
More sinkholes start to appear and so does the goo. What is going on? AT one point the goo attacks a family and turns them into ‘imblobsters’ or blob imposters. Can Agnes and Jake put an end to this? Is this Jake’s destiny? As more and more sinkholes and imblobsters keep showing up, Agnes and Jake can’t keep this secret and the “Them” finally show up. Now Jake has to figure out if they can help stop the goo from taking over or if they just want Jake to study him.
I really liked this book. Jake and Agnes are amazing and able to handle these crazy situations far better than most adults.
Literary Coffee 