De Taylors

I’ll admit: I rolled my eyes at first when Taylor’s anxiety about starting middle school veered into full-on catastrophe mode. *Another* book about a kid terrified of lockers and lunchrooms? But *De Taylors* won me over by leaning into the absurdity of those fears—like when Taylor’s brain short-circuits mid-conversation, and Horlings’ narration perfectly captures that spiral of *‘Why did I say that? Now they’ll think I’m weird. I AM weird.’* The Dutch setting isn’t just window dressing; it shapes the humor (Taylor’s dad’s blunt advice is *chef’s kiss*) and the social stakes (the hierarchy of bike racks as a status symbol? Genius). That said, the story occasionally stumbles into predictability—Taylor’s ‘invisibility’ arc follows a familiar beats, and a subplot about a school project drags slightly in the audiobook’s second act. But Horlings’ performance saves even the weaker moments, especially her voicing of Taylor’s little sister, whose deadpan one-liners steal every scene she’s in. The production is clean, though I wished for more dynamic audio cues (like ambient school noise) to heighten the immersion. Still, by the end, I was won over by the book’s honesty: not every friendship survives middle school, not every embarrassment fades quickly, and sometimes, the bravery isn’t in changing who you are—it’s in letting people see you anyway. For listeners who love *Rainbow Rowell’s* wit or *Lisa Graff’s* emotional precision, this is a worthy addition to the ‘growing up is weird’ canon.