Header image with four cats and the text: Pussreboots, a book review nearly every day. Online since 1997
Now 2025 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA+ Art Portfolio Purchase Art WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley
Bird & Squirrel All Tangled Up by James Burks
Black Hammer, Volume 3: Age of Doom Part One by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston
Boat of Dreams by Rogério Coelho
Body on Baker Street by Vicki Delany
Captive Hearts of Oz Volume 1 by Ryo Maruya and Mamenosuke Fujimaru
Charley Harper's Book of Colors by Zoe Burke
Clobbered by Camembert by Avery Aames
Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower
Daring Do and the Eternal Flower by A.K. Yearling
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg
Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs
Frazzled: Minor Incidents and Absolute Uncertainties by Booki Vivat
The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
The Ghost Road by Charis Cotter
The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley
Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender
Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book by Will Mabbitt and Ross Collins
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop by Alice Faye Duncan and R. Gregory Christie
Paradox Bound by Peter Clines
The Red Slippers by Carolyn Keene
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
Takedown by Laura Shovan
Voltron Legendary Defender Volume 3: Absolution by Mitch Iverson
Wind/Pinball: Two Novels by Haruki Murakami

Miscellaneous
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 04)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 11)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 18)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 25)
January 2019 Sources
January 2019 Summary

Road Essays
FF3366: orphans going offroad to rural places

FF3333: orphans in rural places along Blue Highways

FF3300: orphans left in rural places along interstates

FF00FF: orphans in the city by way of the cornfield

On Note Taking

Road Narrative Update for January 2019

Previous month



Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book: 02/01/19

Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book

Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book by Will Mabbitt and Ross Collins is the final book of the Mabel Jones series but narrative wise, there should be a fourth book.

Mabel now trapped in the Noo World has decided to track down the Doomsday book to learn what happened to humanity. The clues lead her and her crew to Otom. But now there is a new menace, a creature named Von Klaar is also after the book.

The exploration of Otom — aka what's left of Istanbul — should have by rights been the conclusion. It's not. There is lots of derring-do and chasing. And then there's a new clue that points in the direction of whatever has become of Egypt.

And then the book and the series ends. With it now three years after the publish date, I doubt there are more books planned. No. I suspect the author did but something happened. Things happen. Plans get set aside.

While I don't typically count British travel stories in the road narrative because of the "there and back again" nature of them, I have the Mabel books grandfathered in. I started reading them before I knew for sure what my focus would be.

The lack of a conclusion, actually makes this series a better fit the project that it otherwise would have been. I am reminded of The Vacation by Polly Horvath, a middle grade novel that ends before its fictionalized road trip does. The point is, "Noo World" road narratives are often one way and British ones usually involve a round trip.

So in terms of the project, Molly's last adventure comes in at a FFCC66: orphan uhoria offroad. Molly has chosen to stay (and now be stuck) in the far future, some in determined amount of time. Molly through her decision is once again an orphan, meaning see's separated from her family. Her travels are primarily offroad as they are by sea.

progression of the Mabel Jones books up the road narrative spectrum.

  • Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones: 66CC66 marginalized uhoria offroad
  • Mabel Jones and the Forbidden City: CCCC66 siblings uhoria offroad
  • Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book: FFCC66 Orphan uhoria offroad

Over the course of three books, Mabel Jones has gone from a marginalized traveler in a dangerous world, to a sibling traveler (to rescue and then guide her younger sister home), and finally an orphan traveler who has chosen to adventure in this far future world to hopefully prevent whatever tragedy befell humanity.

Four stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:

Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2025 Sarah Sammis