DNF @ 20%

I feel bad DNFing this as it's a MG book and I'm hardly the intended audience but something about this just didn't work for me. I felt like Col's age was a little all over the place. He's supposed to be 10 or 12 (text wasn't totally clear) but at points he felt like he was 7 or 8 and at times he seemed older. It was a strange kind of inconsistency that made it hard to get to know his character as he felt a bit unpredictable. I also felt like everything was a bit simplistic. Every challenge they faced was immediately overcome, there wasn't much lasting difficulty.

However this book handled the emotional side of being evacuated very well, and Col's emotional responses to everything felt very authentic and well written. There were also lots of positive reviews so perhaps this was a case of the book and myself being incompatible more than anything else.