Thyla

by Kate Gordon

• ISBN13: 9781864718812
• Publish Date: 1 April 2011
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 May 2016
• Publish Country: AU
• Publisher: Random House Australia
• Imprint: Random House Australia Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Thyla is weird and confusing. I had no idea what to make of it as I was reading, and it took me quite a while to settle on a rating. On one hand, it's utterly unique and the mythology (that I could understand) was interesting. Plus it was written as a second person narrative, which I'm always excited to stumble upon. But, there was a steady wave of questions generated and absolutely no answers until the info-dump of a finish. Even then, I still had questions! Thyla starts out with Tessa being brought to the hospital after being found out in the bush. She has no memories except for her name, and few random words here and there. Physically, she was fine, so she was released and sent away to a prestigious boarding school. Not the best decision.

Tessa was an interesting character. Her amnesia brought about a lot of interesting reactions from her as she navigates her first day of school. Many of those reactions were quite animalistic, but since the description for Thyla mentions shapeshifting, we already know one thing about Tess that she doesn't. There were also several laughs as she hears slang and discovers waffles, and some awkward scenes like when she starts her period in class. However, as we get closer to the end, her lack of memories does get a bit annoying. I needed to know what the heck was going on, since evidently none of the other characters cared to explain!

Even though it took way too long to be revealed, I did really like the shapeshifters in Thyla. These aren't your typical wolves or panthers or whatever. Tessa and some of the other characters turned into a different kind of animal. In fact, there's two warring species. They're really cool and I don't want to spoil it! But just think about cat or dog like things that you may find in Australia...

My only real issue with Thyla is that it's majorly confusing at times. Tess is our narrator but she has no clue what's going on herself, and her random memories don't make much sense at first. A lot of things are explained in the closing chapters, but I don't think it was explained all that well. There is one kind of major thing that kept nagging at me, which is in regards to Tessa speaking in old timey English. This is kind of explained, as one of the twists, but then again, it doesn't really. And why exactly are these two species fighting?! It seemed like they had a common enemy, and yet, they're going after each other? I just don't get.

I did like Thyla but I wish the plot and the world building had been clearer. I'm also kind of bummed that the next book isn't about Tessa. Her story didn't feel complete to me. There was some forbidden romancing going on toward the end, but that got resolved quickly and neatly. I just need more!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.