My eyeballs hurt from all the rolling. Review of The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities

 I wanted to read The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities when I saw that Rebecca Roanhorse was one of the short story writers. I've read all of her books and enjoyed them.

Since I'm not between 8 and 12 years old, I might not be the best for reviewing this collection of hero stories. Maybe if I put a month between reading each selection I would have enjoyed them more. The problem with reading them one after another was that they sounded too much alike.

Different kids with different abilities, sometimes from different places in the universe, yet they all seemed just the same. Each hero managed dialogue that was witty even when they were about to be eaten, killed, squashed, whatever. Friends and enemies were snarky toward each other. There was usually a clueless adult. And, don't get me started on eyeball rolling. I think characters rolled their eyes in every story. I know tweens roll their eyes, but everybody, all the time, in every story? I'm going to have to buy a second eyeball-roll-o-meter to keep up with all the optical athletics. 

I did like Ms. Roanhorse's story even if the character's eyeballs were unhinged. The good news was that her protagonist realized her snarkiness might keep her from being a good friend and changed her ways, if not her eyeball theatrics.

I might not be crazy about this anthology, but 6th graders would probably love it.  Me, I just rolled my eyes at the stories.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance readers digital copy in return for an honest review.