I wanted to like this more based on the premise; similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but with people who love books. But it was poorly written--to much telling, not enough showing, especially in terms of relationships between characters.

There were too many predictable and/or unnecessary subplots; one issue was introduced at the very end just to keep everything from being wrapped up a little too neatly. The thing that bothered me the most was

Autumn's death

; I felt like it was shrugged off by everyone; the author creating the contest and

only making it available to kids who did make it to the island felt disrespectful to her memory

.