Grounded For All Eternity succeeds with its playfully evil intent if you let it

Grounded For All Eternity is hyperbole. True story: for a while, I thought hyperbole was pronounced hyper bowl and really was just people bowling really fast. This is a case where a youth does something bad, really bad, and thinks that they’ll be grounded for a very long time. This is also no ordinary kid. Mal lives in Hell, again, that’s not hyperbole, he lives in Hell. It’s hot, with lots of red and black décor, and has various circles that comprise neighborhoods with homes, fallen angels, and flying folks.  Grounded For All Eternity is thrilling mglit that takes a leap of faith to follow its premise, but rewards readers with a story that’s ironically about redemption and friendship.

The fact that the book’s main protagonist is from Hell will preclude some mglit readers from even opening it. That’s a bummer because Grounded For All Eternity is not an evil book. It examines teen behavior, the capacity for change, defying stereotypes, historical wrongs, the characteristics of true friendship, and consequential actions when things are not done. These are all enviable traits that readers aged ten and up would benefit from, it’s just that Mal and his friends live in Hell.

The vast majority of Grounded For All Eternity doesn’t take place there. Mal and his friends, being typical teens, somehow find a porthole that goes to another dimension. In this case, it’s the often-heard-about, but never visited realm of Earth, and visiting the third rock from the sun hits our winged friends like the pain of sudden mortality. To make matters even more frustrating for them, they crossed over on Halloween night to Salem, Massachusetts, a place people were burned just possibly being witches.

Initially, the trio is overjoyed seeing the vast amount of evil, but are quickly dejected when they realize that everything is fake. Their brooms have no power and the magicians are more apt to call the police than to produce oracles. That is until they meet one mysterious Earth boy, Sean, who seems to know more than he’s letting on.

He senses that Mal and his two friends are different but can’t put his finger on why. Thankfully, the trio has located the gate back to Hell, but the guardian says that one person isn’t there and that everyone must cross back over at the same time. The three friends know that they’re there, and after thinking for a bit they realize that a soul has escaped from Hell with them. That’s all good and well until they discover that this soul is a real troublemaker who has ties to the original witch burnings.

A real angel from Heaven joins the group to see if she can help. She has powers that the others don’t and just might be the one to solve their issues, or she might be trying to take them with her. All the trio wants to do is go back home, but the presence that they’ve brought with them is on the verge of destroying the world, starting with Salem.

There is more at play in the book than just three teens from Hell. It’s a very cool story that has lots of supernatural action that mglit audiences will enjoy if their libraries or parents can get past the underworld elephant in the room. It’s not objectionable and flows very easily as a book that reluctant middle school readers will enjoy if nothing else just because it’s slightly taboo. Just lose yourself in the fish out of water concept and it’ll be fun, no damage done and those tweens to teens just might read a book for fun.

Grounded For All Eternity is by Darcy Marks and is available on Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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