A review of Matt Youngmark’s book series The Arabella Grimsbro Collection.

Youngmark definitely has his voice down and the feel for his main character Arabella Grimsbro. As she moves through her adventures, you can feel her sense of impatience and frustration, and as deeper “tricks” are revealed, her surprise comes through clear as a bell.

In these books, Arabella finds herself drawn to a peculiar store in the mall. It seems to be a bit like a book store in the form of a VR experience or something like it, but once the mechanism is out of the way, Arabella finds herself hurled into several already-in-play adventures.

Her first adventure is in the land of Oz, and a young woman with a grumpy attitude and a punchy temper does much better there than one might expect.

Her next adventure is on the distant planet Barsoom, where she joins the Tharks and other Martians.

Her third adventure is aboard the submarine Nautilus, both shipping with Captain Nemo and his crew, but also trying desperately to find her way out of this sequence of adventures and back home.

The collection also includes a short adventure in the worlds of Sherlock Holmes, for those of us so inclined.

As a character, Arabella offers us an insight to each of these settings that is atypical to the settings. While she’s angry and confused and sometimes abrasive, at her core, she believes in a kind of justice and kindness, albeit of her own flavor.

Also, she swears. Much more than you might think. In fact, her swearing is enumerated in the introductions. It’s that awesome.

I hope you check it out if you have a chance.