Book Review: Fortune Tellers 

By Lisa Greenwald 

5 Stars 

Millie, Nora, and Bea were once best friends who were obsessed with making fortune tellers together. But after a big fight at the end of fifth grade, none of the girls have since spoken to each other, despite how much each of them secretly wants to reconnect. Since their fight, the pandemic had shut down their school, and each girl eventually went their separate ways. Now, over a year later, the strangest thing has started to happen to them individually: their fortune tellers – the very ones they were sure they had destroyed after their fight – have started to reappear, each with an eerily specific message for each girl. Could their past be coming back to haunt them? 

I personally enjoyed this middle-grade novel from Lisa Greenwald. Each character’s personality was vivid and clearly displayed. However, I would have liked to have seen a little bit more description about the main characters’ physical features because I found it difficult to picture them. Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed was how the author switched characters’ point of view every chapter, putting the characters’ names as the chapter title to differentiate them. It made the storyline so much more complex to be able to get inside each of the three main characters’ mind and feelings through the first-person narration. I loved how extremely relatable Millie, Nora, and Bea were to the reader. Another part of this novel that I loved was the flashback chapters that contributed to the present-day storyline. Reading the actual scene from the past was more effective than just being told about it through the character’s memory. Overall, Fortune Tellers is a delightful read and an excellent novel to add to one’s middle-grade collection.

Reviewed by Olivia 

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