I read Barbie Dreamscape by Alex Aster

I read Barbie Dreamscape by Alex Aster so you don't have to here is my full brutally honest review one disclaimer *this review is for READERS, not the author this is not a personal attack against Alex Aster as a person I'm sure she's lovely nor really her as an author because I actually read Star Side by her and while the writing was not great in that one either I loved the vibes and I'm excited for a second book this is about Barbie Dreamscape the book specifically and the marketing behind this book this is labeled and marketed and shelved as a ya fantasy this book is middle grade objectively and so therefore I am judging it as the ya book they want me to believe it is because truthfully if it was marketed appropriately for middle schoolers I wouldn't be able to judge this book because clearly it's not made for me but because Astra and her publishers and Mattel refused to label this correctly just for money I'm judging it appropriately ya is not an excuse to write terribly I can give you plenty of examples of ridiculously well written ya books some of which I prefer over my adult categorized books it's a shame because middle schoolers and parents of such will never pick up this book because it's labeled ya or teen and adults and ya readers that will pick up this book thinking it might be okay because it's in a certain section are gonna be sorely disappointed by the quality of this book the writing is so pared down basic bland and boring it's almost offensive I was talking with my husband and he was like well what if Mattel forced her to write this way to appeal to a mass audience and to that I say what a shame I know writing the first Barbie novel which that is even contested was an exciting feat but if for any reason your publisher or Mattel was forcing you to dumb down your writing in order to get this book published then you have no credibility or trustworthiness as an author and if it's on the opposite end where this is just your writing for some reason that is even more atrocious because this is one of those books where I'm like oh I could publish a book because I could do better than this I took AP English and I can do better than this telling not showing is on such a level that Barbie Larry Just says whatever she's feeling out loud and that's the moment we know through while we're in books and movies when a character is feeling afraid right they might be shuddering closing their eyes grimacing heart pounding that's how we know In this book our main character Barbie will just say I'm afraid and it's like that for every single emotion truly felt like I was reading someone's high school paper like when your creative writing teacher in high school gives you that prompt to like try to write a novel that's what this book feels like I'm not even going to delve into the fact that there is a winged familiar sidekick Pegasus named Bartholomew in this book I sure as hell hope that was an intentional nod to Rachel Gillick because if not embarrassing not that Rachel Gillig has a monopoly on Bartholomew's side characters but it was just so obvious that it really just felt more like lazy writing and that is also a theme in this book our main character Barbie has to travel to a bunch of different lands to find her purpose because she lives in this world named Heartland where it's decide what each Barbie character does and she ends up with no fate she goes on this mission to go to these different lands to try to find the fates and ask them why she doesn't have a purpose locations are Heartland Summerland any land Dreamland I get that we're trying to come from the Barbie universe here but it really was like you could not come up with anything better like what is happening I also want to discuss the fact that in the marketing for this book and the afterward of this book Aster talks about her love for Barbie and how excited she was to do this project where is the love in this book I felt no genuine interest in creating a solid Barbie novel for the modern age the characters lack depth any and all side characters were there to just push Barbie's narrative forward we Learned nothing really interesting about them it's all just to push Barbie's journey forward which whatever but thanks some of them actually could have been interesting but let's just move on so Barbie can learn her life lessons which by the way the real part why this is middle grade is because the life lessons are literally just written and told to you there is the opposite of subtlety in this book I'm talking someone shoving a paper in your face so far down your throat the point there's literally the line I'm scared but I'm doing it anyway like five times in this book like I get it dude that's why if this was labeled to me as a middle grade book for 8 to 12 year olds I'd be like you know what lack of subtlety the lack of depth the just floundering this book does makes sense for the age range and you know what can I really do but no y'all forced my hand because you wanna label this ya you wanna give it to young adult to adult readers so here's the real tea and it's a one star I really did rack my brain to try to give it another star the marketing pissed me off so much that I cannot fathom doing so because if y'all are gonna do this for a money grab I'm gonna give the real tea that unfortunate and honestly I truly mean it when I say I would give this to like my 10 year old niece who likes Barbie I really would I think kids would love this but technically it's not for kids honestly even if I was a teenager I would not like this because it is so basic it is so predictable is this worth your time if you're anyone like me no if you have a ten year old daughter at home maybe read it from the library and give her a bedtime story that is all this is good for next