Tyger Tyger (The Goblin Wars, #1)

by Kersten Hamilton

[Kim Deister]

The debut young adult novel by Kersten Hamilton, Tyger Tyger is the first of what is to be a series, The Goblin Wars. Teagen is a girl with a plan for her future, knowing exactly what she wants out of life. She has a great job and has expectations for a college scholarship. Her mom is an artist and an illustrator, her dad a librarian with a penchant for Irish poetry. Her best friend, Abby, is a quirky girl that she has known her whole life. Her little brother Aiden is a human iPod. Nothing about her life is dangerous. Until Finn comes into her life and everything she has known about herself, her family and the world around her turns upside down.

From the first page of this novel, I was hooked. I was drawn into the story from the very beginning and very literally couldn't put the book down. I loved the Celtic mythology that wove throughout the story, and the way it was used to both develop the characters and the story. There was definately a line drawn between the good and the evil characters, but the characters were far deeper than that. The evil were definately that, but they were developed in such a way as to be fully intriguing in their own right. I loved that Tea's family members, as well as Abby, were not only supporting characters for the main story, but were almost three-dimensional in nature, quirk and eccentric and fully lovable.

Not only was this a thoroughly engrossing story, it had very clear themes of good and evil. There was a part at the end that essentially said, and I paraphrase, that while blood is blood, sometimes it is the choices you make that count, rather than who or what you came from. I love that message and this story definately made that point. And absolute MUST read!