Review: Enjoyable and Halloween-ish
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 11, 2013
Abigail is a orphan. She has a twin that was adopted by an aunt. Abigail herself, had not been adopted by the aunt as she'd been dubbed "the evil" twin. Somehow, in the attempt to draw closer to her twin, as they were approaching their 16th birthday and had to open a present left to them by their mother, Abigail manages to land herself in the worst orphanage in the area.Right off the bat, she is put in the "evil kid radar" by the Sister's who each have very colorful personalities. More than that, she gets on the Bagman's radar, as he feeds off of her pain and anger.My perspective of the story:In my imagination I found the Bagman to be something like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Different, of course, but similar.Abigail seemed a little disconnected to me. For example, when she met the Bagman, there was no real emotion displayed on her behalf. If this was intentional or not, I can't say for sure.The Sister's though colorful, were also at times a little unrealistic, as were some a few elements of the story. However, this IS a YA Fiction, so that is to be expected. Overall those aspects did not deter me from enjoying the story. I know that some people are sticklers for realism in books.I really enjoyed the part when Abigail made the wish that ultimately changed the Bagman's roll in the story--wish number 3.I found that there were a few loose ends, but I can only surmise that that indicates that there will be sequels to the story.All of the above mentioned were not necessarily negative things. If I had ANY real critique it would be that I found the story a bit on the long side for the targeted age group and the chapter titles where a little screenplay-ish, if you will. Once again, that isn't bad either if you were to compare it to stories like Harry Potter and such.The writing and grammar were practically immaculate and well versed. I really enjoyed the authors execution in the story.The Bagman is an enjoyable read, especially for this time of year (October). If you liked stories like Harry Potter, The Nightmare Before Christmas and/or The Halloween Tree, you may very well enjoy The Bagman.