Book Review: Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

When Theodora Tenpenny spills a bottle of rubbing alcohol on her late grandfather’s painting, she discovers what seems to be an old Renaissance masterpiece underneath. That’s great news for Theo, who’s struggling to hang onto her family’s two-hundred-year-old townhouse and support her unstable mother on her grandfather’s legacy of $463. There’s just one problem: Theo’s grandfather was a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she worries the painting may be stolen.

With the help of some unusual new friends, Theo's search for answers takes her all around Manhattan, and introduces her to a side of the city—and her grandfather—that she never knew. To solve the mystery, she'll have to abandon her hard-won self-reliance and build a community, one serendipitous friendship at a time.


Under the Egg was released back in March and from the first time I saw it, I was intrigued. It is a middle grade novel that seemed like a Lemony Snicket version of Heist Society. When I saw it at the library, I just had to get it. If you have followed my last couple of posts you would know that I read this book during the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. It was the perfect book to read during that time and was entertaining at the same time.

My favorite thing about this book had to be Theo and her lifestyle. I loved the simplicity of her life and reading about her chores and what she did for fun. It was so unique! Theo was a really good protagonist. She was smart, brave, and slightly flawed. Bodhi was really cool as well. She was the typical raised-in-Hollywood kid who wanted to be normal. I also really enjoyed all of the art history that was all throughout the book. I studied Rafael last year and it was great to learn even more. At the end we also got some World War II history which I am a huge fan of (seriously, my parents have to tell me all the time to stop reading books from that time period). 

As always, though, there are some aspects of this book that I didn't like. The first was that a whole lot of things happened way too easily. I mean, you don't usually run across some random vendor on the streets who knows all about the chemistry of oil paint. There were lots of instances of things like that happening. In one scene, all of these people with unnatural knowledge show up. In one scene. Can there be no struggle for information? Another thing was the lack of turmoil in Bodhi and Theo's friendship. They just met and all of a sudden they get along great. There was very little conflict in-between them. For some reason I felt like the story really needed that. It happens in the best friendships. Look at Harry and Ron! They spent half of Goblet of Fire mad at each other! And lastly, Theo was too smart. I appreciate intelligence in characters, but with Theo it just didn't seem quite natural. I think it needed to be toned down just a bit.

All in all, this was a cute middle grade mystery and gave me a break from The Darkest Minds which seems rather menacing. 

I give this book 3.75 stars and recommend it too anyone who needs a cute mystery.