Review: The Girl with the Red Balloon

The Girl With The Red Balloon by Katherine Locke
Publisher: Albert Whitman Company
Release Date: September 1st, 2017
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 7/12/17 to 7/15/17
256 pages

When sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum accidentally time-travels via red balloon to 1988 East Berlin, she’s caught up in a conspiracy of history and magic. She meets members of an underground guild in East Berlin who use balloons and magic to help people escape over the Wall—but even to the balloon makers, Ellie’s time travel is a mystery. When it becomes clear that someone is using dark magic to change history, Ellie must risk everything—including her only way home—to stop the process.

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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

It’s a miracle! I’m writing this review one month early! Wow!

Let me get right to it. Overall, I did like this one. Time travel, WWII-themed (though to my surprise, not actually set during WWII), magical red balloons, all of this just screams me. Though to be completely honest, me and this book did not get off on the right start.

1% into my eARC and already I was seriously judging the simple writing style. Meeting our main character, Ellie, felt a bit lackluster, all tell and no show. I was afraid that this writing style, and therefore this book, wouldn’t work for me at all. Fortunately, that didn’t end up being the case as after 2%, the writing changed and started to appeal to me.

I also must admit that my expectations were set really high, even though I have never read any of the author’s older works before. If you don’t know by now, but I try to read anything and everything related to WWII. Even though this didn’t necessarily take place during that setting, it is still set during the time of the Berlin Wall. This came as a shock, as 1989 wasn’t so long ago, and I had thought the Berlin Wall was brought down earlier.

The Girl with the Red Balloon had a solid plot and solid characters. And time travel of course! I was impressed and surprised with Ellie’s actions, despite the fact that she so badly wanted to go back home. Kai and Mitzi were also wonderful additions to the book, though to be honest I’m not sure whether I cared about the romance between Ellie and Kai.

More could have been developed, especially in regards to world-building. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details of the balloon makers. I’m assuming that there will be more in the sequel, or companion book, as this one is only 256 pages. There were also times where I was confused on who was on who’s side. Though perhaps this was due to my lack of knowledge in history or just the terms used.

Either way, I did enjoy this! Not sure if I will pick up the “sequel”, but I’ll think about it!