In The Window Room by Steven J. Carroll Book Review

In The Window Room by Steven J. Carroll
US Release Date: August 19th 2011
Publisher: Globe Light Press
Author Info: Steven J. Carroll's Website
Source: Giveaway by The Book Vlogger
Genre: Middlegrade/Children's fantasy
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Buy It: Amazon / Barnes and Noble


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There are many... 
very secret, mysterious places in our world. Yet some of which, that hold no other foreseeable worth except that they are hidden, and those, by my judgement, should remain as such. However, there are certain other places, which if one can find them, that are both mysterious and immeasurably valuable. And it is of this latter kind that our story is concerned. 

More specifically, the room that Delany Calbefur found, hidden away in the undiscovered corner of an old house, one Fall while she attended the Mayfield School for Girls, and the story of her adventures there is a tale that well deserves retelling. And so, within the pages of this book, I shall try my best at it. 
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Plot: The plot for In The Window Room starts off very similar to Narnia and has a good premise. It's about a young girl named Delany who gets in trouble and as punishment is sent to live in this old house. In that old house she finds the window room which leads her to many magical adventures.
         The overall premise is good and sounds like a lot of fun but when it came down to it, it lacked a lot of development. The author skipped through many important plot points that would've given the book more depth and instead chose to claim it was too boring and summarize it in a few sentences. True, this might be more appealing to younger readers (which the book is marketed towards) but referencing books such as Narnia and Harry Potter, which were also for younger readers, those books did not skip over major points that would enhance the plot.


Pacing: The book itself is 112 pages long so it only took me a little over an hour to read but it also went very fast because, like I said above, it lacked a lot of development. It was one thing after another with very little connection and pace.


Characters: The main character, a young girl named Delany, did not stand out to me. Im not sure how old she is supposed to be, probably late grade school early middle school maybe, but she didn't really act like I thought a young girl would. Also, I often confused her with her best friend/enemy Mattie. Both girls were very similar in the aspect that they didn't have a distinct personality, they were just kinda there. The other characters kind of blended together as well. The evil king didn't seem very evil. The prince wasn't someone I connected to, and the animal friend was just kinda there.


Writing: The writing is why this book gets a 2.5 instead of a 1. I must say that Steven J. Carroll is a very talented writer. His style was very similar to C.S. Lewis or Charles Dickens in that it was very flowy with long sentences and complicated vocabulary. His writing also makes me think that it wouldn't work for younger readers because it is more complicated. But as someone with a higher reading level I really did appreciate that.


Overall: Considering that it is a children's novel and not meant for readers like me I would probably give this book a three. But in my opinion there were significant things lacking even for a Children's novel. The plot lacked a lot of development and the characters were very hard to connect to. Even the writing, as beautiful as it was, would make it more difficult for a younger reader to understand. Steven Carroll has very good writing skill but needs to work on his story-telling.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Should you read it?

It might be something nice to try with a younger reader 

to see if they appreciate it more.

Should you buy it?

no