The Other Ones Book Review – Fran Hart

It’s spooky season and I wanted to dig into some spooky books. However, The Other Ones book was the opposite to what I had expected and I’m still not sure if I’m happy or not about it. There will be huge spoilers in this The Other Ones book review so if you haven’t read it, be warned.

Spoilers will be in italics so you can spot them before you read and spoil the book for yourself.

The Other Ones Book Synopsis

Sal prefers to blend in, but living in a notorious haunted house makes that impossible. Everyone knows about the ghosts and Sal’s reputation as the weird kid is sealed. His best friend, Dirk, tries to support him but struggles to balance their friendship with his desire to stay popular.

Elsie used to be popular, too, until something happened that landed her at the outcasts’ table with Sal—and she refuses to talk about it. Then there’s Pax, the mysterious new boy who’s drawn to Sal and finds hanging out in graveyards thrilling. Despite Sal’s initial reluctance, he’s inexplicably drawn to Pax and his strange fascination with the supernatural.

In The Other Ones, these four misfits must confront the ghosts that haunt them—both literal and figurative. Together, they might just uncover the secrets that could finally set them free.

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The Other Ones Book Overall Rating – 4/5

I really did like this book, I just found it a little misleading I guess, pumpkin on the front of the book, Autumn colours and the mention of a haunted out instead I didn’t really get that but at the same time I did. It’s difficult to explain but I’d recommend reading it to find out!

Have you read this book? Do you think I was fair, too nice or too harsh?

The Other Ones Plot – 4

The plot was really well written, easy to follow and had me wanting to read more and forget all about sleep. The plot isn’t what I thought it was going to be.

However, I found myself slightly annoyed, I was expecting something spooky and haunting but instead, the plot was just the characters overcoming their own haunting and there weren’t any real ghosts which was a big shame! I thought it was a little misleading but at the same time, the plot was also really good.

The Other Ones Characters – 4.5

I loved some of the characters in this book, other ones annoyed me slightly though which was a shame. I did feel however that there was character growth for almost everyone throughout the book which was nice to see when other books forget about characters and they’re just there hanging around and not evolving.

I loved Pax, he was adorable. However, I didn’t like his mum Annie, I found her to be giving out more mixed signals than a broken traffic light. One minute she’s angry at Sal and the next she’s letting him off the hook; make your mind up! Sal was amazing, the typical recluse at school that we all look back on thinking, dam why didn’t I get to know him! Asha was okay but the whole thing with Dirk going after her all the time when he should have kissed Elise at the winter dance, well it was a bit grating to say the least.

Overall I liked more characters over the amount of ones I didn’t really like so that’s a positive for sure.

The Other Ones Emotional Rating – 3

So I’m a very emotional reader and I pick up on emotions quite often through the books I read, that being said I think this one missed the mark in some areas. There were semi sad moments throughout and tension that made me want to keep reading so I knew what happened but other than that, there wasn’t much.

I felt that when they went to the hospital to see their mum it would be a lot more emotional and sad but the only thing I felt the whole time was happy that Sal and Pax got back together and laughed when I found out why the nurse was looking at them. I also thought the interaction with Asha going to university, could have been exaggerated a little more.

The Other Ones Ending – 4.5

The Other Ones ending was actually really nice, cute and dam near perfect. I easily give it a 4.5/5 stars for the ending, and there weren’t loads of questions left over to be answered, or in most cases, not answered.

I love how Sal made Pax see that being weird, is normal and the relationship I felt grew stronger in that moment. I still think that Dirk and Elise should have gotten together, especially after the winter dance fight but I guess Fran Hart the author had other ideas.

The Other Ones Spice Rating – 0

I don’t include spice ratings in the overall rating because some books will be laced with spice throughout all the pages and some books just have nothing, and nothing was what The Other Ones had. There was no spice, no getting it on and most of the time the doors were kept open!

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