Pretty good for a children's fantasy novel. Parts of it were better than others. It seemed to me that the main characters took an extra long time to realize things were traps that were so obviously traps. I kept wanting to shake them. Honestly, every monster could put up a sign saying "this is a trap" and they still would fall for it. Nevertheless, it was a fun read, fast and sometimes surprising. I'll give the second book in the series a shot before making a final decision.