Journey into the Realm

by Markelle Grabo

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

The premise of this book intrigued me--a young girl who doesn't quite fit in learns her true place is a the Elf Realm where there is an ongoing war with the Element Fairies. What I didn't know is this novel was written by a high schooler. I gave the novel a chance. I did get through the novel. It was evident that the author lacked experience. The voice slipped from the main character, Ramsey, to the author's quite frequently and when is slipped it was very apparent the author was a high schooler.

"...so I went out to the hallway to get a drink of water at the bubbler. Yes, I called it a bubbler. I was from Wisconsin...need I say more?" page 25

In this one sentence, I was jarred out of the story. It was so unlike the main character to sound so snotty. She was nearly a loner who did her own thing and did her best to avoid conflict. Additionally, at no point in the first 25 pages had there been a mention of the location of the story.

My other complaint would be the vastness of the Universe Grabo created. Elves, five kinds (the novel says 4 on page 151) of fae (Golden, Element, Woodland, Butterfly and Flower) plus dryads, nymphs, pixies. There is even a short appearance of a gnome, Mac, and a mention of the mermaids and mermen. With so many different kinds of creatures floating around plus all the different powers the elves can have like sharing memories, teleportation, shape-shifting just to name a few, at times my head a reeling trying to follow it all. (Chapter 8)

I did finish the book. There was a hook. Ramsey has a secret. I read 352 pages only to learn the secret would not be revealed in this book. Ramsey gives up (page 352) despite the build up towards the end of the novel when someone other than Ramsey's sister, Zora, threatened to share Ramsey's secret with her.

Book was a Good Reads First Reads giveaway.