The promise is intriguing and the writing rather good, but it doesn't really sparkle. Maybe the universe is a bit too confusing and would deserve to be simplified or introduced more clearly.
But I'll keep an eye out for the second book of this author.

I will not be sharing my review here or on commercial outlets. The book is offensive over people's looks and made me feel very hurt. Please do not contact me over my review here or if you find it on Goodreads.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing this e-arc!

This tale was a very unique one that i liked. Not loved though as I found some parts of the narration very flawed. I have some doubts about the character but i really would recommend this to children and my children themselves.

Rating: 3.5
This book was a trip, believe me. So let's debunk this book:

The story was about a boy, William Teller and his journey to find his father that disappeared one day suddenly, after sending him to Theffects School for Troubled Boys. Through his journey he meets a lot of different characters that help him find his imagination, that Tell thought to be lost, and later on his father. This book reads almost like a fairy tail, reminding me of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (I'm gonna put it here just because, but I feel like this would be great in film format specially if it was made into a Ghibli film).
Now here's a line from the book that pretty much summarizes it:
<i>"Whatever,” he snapped. “All I’m saying is—what I’m trying to say is…” (...) A giggle escaped his lips. “I think I’m going mad.”</i> Same, Tell, same.

This book had an unusual writing style which truly didn't bother me much but the use of the article "The" before the name of places, i.e. Theffects, Thejalis, Theconsulor and so on was a bit unusual. It was pretty confusing at times to keep track of those and therefore memorize the names. It also kind of ticked me off having always "The" followed by something, which with an already abnormal plot made it even more confusing.
Some of the characters were memorable and likable such as Aiderider, Weekend and Carter. As for our main character Tell, I wasn't really invested in his story and there wasn't a big development character wise, I feel I reached the end of the book with a pretty undeveloped Tell. Sure enough I wanted to follow him until the end and figure out if he was able to find his imagination and be able to control it but there was nothing else besides that.
Unfortunately, there were a few typos and grammatical errors which made me bring my score down a bit.
Overall I'm very thankful to have received an ARC of this book but it was definitely a weird book in a good way if you know what I mean.

P.S. I had this HUGE pet peeve with the way Weekend kept going back and forth bewtween calling Aiderider, Aider or Rider. Like, dude, stick to one!

Brims with life. A cool, character-oriented story, fit for the classroom shelf. I’m glad I had the chance to read this well-written book and would gladly share it with others.

“Because the only thing that matters, if you haven’t noticed Tell, is what you believe yourself.”⁣
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⭐⭐⭐/5 I really struggled with this one. Tell, or the Adventures in Themiddle read like a troubling dream, one that I just couldn't seem to wake up from.⁣
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Tell faced one bizarre obstacle after another in Themiddle, where "believe" is the new b-word. And while I would have liked to have been riveted by his journey, I instead found myself unbearably bored.⁣
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I valiantly persevered to the end, all the while hoping that something wonderful might happen to redeem this story. Sadly, my hope was misplaced. The ending happened rather abruptly and left me feeling just as discombobulated and dissatisfied as the previous pages.⁣
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That being said, I am giving this tale three out of five stars because though the story was lacking, the writing was not and that is worth the mention.⁣
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Also, Ricardo Nunez Suarez did a brilliant job with the cover illustration! Check out his IG feed (@rinusuarez) to see the full design.⁣

I received an electronic ARC from BooksGoSocial through NetGalley.
The ideas behind this book make an interesting idea for a story. However, the implementation falls far short. I did finish the whole story though I debated abandoning it at several points.
Mayer's characters are less than appealing and seem to wander through the entire book without a connected purpose. The bookend chapters that are set in the "present" attempt to explain what the rest of the book is about - with some satire thrown in.
One more edit for grammar and typos would have helped immensely though may not have fixed the overall flow and lack of transitions.

Actually 3.5 stars. This author has an interesting tall tale to tell and Mayer sticks true to the confabulation method of tall tale telling, leaving the astute reader to wonder what the peculiar sounding and run-on names really suggest, like Themiddleof and so on. William Teller clearly is a play on William Tell, and that should be a tip off to those looking for clues. This unusual world that reminds me a little bit of The Phantom Tollbooth in its audacious creativity. My main issue was ease in following the story for both middle grade readers and willing adults. #TellortheAdventuresinThemiddle #NetGalley