I’m on book 5 of the Dylan Maples Adventure series…

I finished book five of the Dylan Maples Adventure Series…

I’m writing the review for the last book of the series…

WAIT.

THE SERIES IS…

OVER???!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Anyway, hello there and welcome back to my blog, I’m Ariela (oBvIoUsLy) and THIS is the review for the last book in the Dylan Maples Adventure series. Now, I know that I said that my favorite book was book 4, Monster in the Mountains, BUT that has changed because now I have a new favorite, I’m sorry book 4, you have been un-favorited. *sad music plays*

Title: Phantom of Fire

Author: Shane Peacock

Publisher: Nimbus Publishing

Rating: ✨✨✨✨✨/5

Review:

So one of the reasons why I liked this book so much was because it was set in New Brunswick. And I live in New Brunswick. It’s set more in northern New Brunswick though, so there’s also a lot of mention of the Acadians and their culture. It all starts when Dylan’s parents decide to go to visit some family friends (I can’t remember if they were family friends or actual family). Now, Dylan is recovering from the death of one of his best friends who died in a tragic car accident, so he’s not really in the mood for visiting with family and friends and going out on a vacation, because he’s mourning. Then, he meets a girl named Antoinine on the beach, and she’s in shock. Now, this girl, Antoinine, just saw what looked like a ship burning in the distance, it was burning for a while, and then it disappeared. Like a ghost. It’s a really interesting mystery, and I really enjoyed reading about it. I got to learn a little bit about Acadian history, local myths and legends, and of course, I got to see Dylan one more time.

Overall thoughts on the series:

I really enjoyed reading this series overall, I thought it was really fun and I liked getting to see what Dylan got himself into. However, I didn’t like how some of the themes in this book were a little too… mature? And I don’t mean that it wasn’t a kid-friendly book, just that there were some themes that I didn’t care for, and I feel that a younger kid wouldn’t care for either. Like in this book, (book 5) the synopsis at the back says “What’s the deal with the local right-wing politician who is on everybody’s minds these days?”. See, that’s where you’ve lost me. Like, currently this book is going to be targeted towards 8-12 year olds, I’m 14 and I literally just learned the difference between the left and the right. That’s because I have just now started to care about these things. I get that Dylan is older now, and that might mean that the readers are older too, but that doesn’t mean a middle grade series can just switch over to YA. And it’s not exactly YA, it’s middle grade, but it’s also… weird. In book 2 there’s a lot of talk about lawyers and stealing rights, and copyright claims, and I mean-sure, it works for the story, but no kid is going to care about that. I also felt like each book was insanely short, when they could have been longer.

Now that I’ve had time to think about this series more, I’d honestly give this series 3.5 stars. Giving this series 4 stars would mean that it’s slightly above average, but I didn’t quite feel that. Nothing in this was overly well-done, it all kind of fell flat? When there’s something cool happening, like Dylan getting chased by bad guys, at the end the book will do a complete 180 and make it so that the bad guys were actually just doing a routine drill and playing tag or something—like no—have someone get shot, have someone get a life threatening injury. I feel like there should have been higher stakes—if there were any to begin with—and just… more. Remember how I said that this series was believable? I feel like it could’ve been less believable because every time with this series that you think something could be true, that ghosts might exist, that sasquatches are real, it’s taken away and the book meets a disappointing end.

Yeah, I bet you didn’t expect this to be my final thoughts for this series… I’ll tell you that I didn’t expect this either. When I say that I favor books 4 and 5 more than the others, it’s because the bar is already set kinda low.

Alright, that’s all for this book review. I hope that you enjoyed reading about me reading and reviewing this series!