Marshmallow reviews Big Game by Stuart Gibbs

Marshmallow has already reviewed several books from Stuart Gibbs’ FunJungle series: you can check out her review of the first book, Belly Up, here, while her review of the second book, Poached, is here, her review of the fourth book, Panda-monium, is available here, and her review of the fifth book in the series, Lion Down, is here. Today she finally got around to sharing with us her thoughts on the third book on the adventures of Teddy Fitzroy: Big Game.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like detective books or enjoyed reading some of Stuart Gibbs’s other books, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with spoilers): Teddy Fitzroy lives at FunJungle, the world’s biggest, most elaborate zoo, where a lot of events have gone wrong. For example, the zoo’s mascot, Henry the Hippo, was murdered in the first book, Belly Up. Then in the second book, Poached, which Caramel is reading now, Kazoo the Koala is stolen, after the zoo and its billionaire owner, J.J. McCracken, went to “enormous lengths” to secure the bringing it to FunJungle. 

Now, the zoo has to face one of their hardest cases. Someone is shooting at Rhonda Rhino! Teddy has gotten into a lot of danger while solving other cases in FunJungle, so he wisely decides that he will sit out on this one. But J.J. McCracken has other ideas. 

Since J.J. knows that he is good at solving mysteries, he brings Teddy to his office, with his daughter, Summer, who is Teddy’s friend. J.J. asks Teddy if he will take the case, and Teddy says that he will consider it and ask his parents about it. While Summer calls her mother, J.J. hints that if Teddy doesn’t help, his parents will be fired. Teddy of course does not want his parents to lose their jobs, so he goes to the scene of the crime, Rhonda’s pen, where she is kept while she is pregnant. 

Marshmallow’s Review: This is one of Teddy’s hardest cases. It is really hard to decide what to make of the situation, since there are so many loose ends, but of course they neatly tie up at the end. Like how the assailant didn’t use a silencer when they took the first shot and then later in another attempt did. 

I think that the attacker did a very good job of hiding their guilt. I never suspected them. A lot of the clues do not make any sense about who the attacker is, until the end. 

The book is very well written and thought out. The clues are all laid out, and at the end of the book (this is a personal experience, it might not happen to you), I wondered how I hadn’t realized who the guilty person was before. 

The author has once again mixed humor, thrill, and mystery in this book making this a great book for fans of mystery books. 

Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.