Synopsis: Elise and Franklin have always been best friends. Elise has always lived in the big house with her loving Uncle and Aunt, because Elise's parents died when she was too young to remember them. There's always been a barn behind the house with eight locked doors on the second floor. When Elise and Franklin start middle school, things feel all wrong. Bullying. Not fitting in. Franklin suddenly seems babyish. Then, soon after her 12th birthday, Elise receives a mysterious key left for her by her father. A key that unlocks one of the eight doors upstairs in the barn...(Goodreads.com)
There is definitely one thing that really stood out for me and that was the narrator. I thought Georgette Perna did a great job, particularly with Elise and Franklin. There was just something about Elise's trouble life that worked well with the voice. When she was upset, I totally sympathized with her. When she was disdainful of how immature and "uncool" Franklin was acting, she sounded exactly like a typical sixth grader trying to be more mature than her age. And when she was so unhappy with school and the bullying she endured, I felt awful for her. Georgette Perna did a great job of vocalizing Elise's ups and downs. I truly felt awful for her but then I was irritated with her too, when she she was being mean to her best friend, Franklin. She felt like a true character.
Likewise, Franklin's pip squeaky voice is just how so many young sixth grade boys talk. He was so excited about science, about knights, and Star Wars. He felt like such a real character and I really enjoyed how he came alive in the audio book. I don't think he would have been quite as much fun just reading about him.
Unfortunately, this story is just rather slow. It's not all that long but it took forever on the discs to actually get to one of the main plot points, the eight keys that Elise discovers, a legacy from her dead father. There was so much set-up and it was not very action packed to move the story along. Then when she finally starts discovering the keys, things to pick up fortunately. Overall though, it was just a rather slow audio story.
That being said, there are some great themes explored in this book, including bullying. There is name-calling but just a sense of being very scared to go to work. And it shows the cycle of bullying too, as Amanda, the girl who bullies Elise, is bullied, and Elise herself starts to call Franklin names, something she hadn't done before. It was downright mean but I thought it was rather a powerful way to show how easily bullying can happen, even if, in Elise's case, it isn't something you intended. It also shows how bullying isn't always solved by adults unfortunately.
This is not a bad book by any means. It has some great lessons to learn and in the audio version, the characters' voices are really well done. The story is rather slow and I can see it losing readers along the way. Overall, a rather mixed bag listening experience. I love being glued in with my ears, so to speak, when I'm listening to audiobooks and this was not a story that did that. But it is a really approachable story for tweens to talk about bullying, changing friendships, and the roles parents play in their lives. Heavy concepts that sometimes weighed the story down but also gave it some important and well-articulated scenes.
This is a 5 hour, 12 minute audio CD, 4 discs, from Listening Library.
Reviewed from my public library copy.
