My Quick Takes:
- 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Genre 📚 middle grade Christian fantasy
- Language 🤐 none
- Spice ❤️🔥 none
- Content 🤔 themes of war/violence/death, past death of parent, parent abandonment, bullying
While this is technically a middle grade, I’d personally say it’s a good bridge between the middle grade and YA genre.
The main character is 12, and is already dealing with heavy themes like the recent death of her father, getting bullied at school, feeling responsible for her mom, and being written off by adults. There were quite a few instances throughout the book that felt heavy, both with these themes and also the threat of death and being killed by the bad side.
There were many parallels between this book and the Lion the witch and the wardrobe. A human girl gets taken to a fantasy realm that is under threat of dark forces. Within this realm is a Christ figure akin to Aslan in Narnia. This character, Pax, is the light in the darkness and claims to having made characters new, etc, strengthening the Christ figure image.
Unlike Narnia, there are many different magical creatures within the realm that are found in mainstream culture. Robin Hood, Merlin, and figures from Greek mythology just to name a few. It didn’t both me personally, but some may find it confusing alongside the theme of Christianity.
This is a true middle grade, which is great for the target audience. I can see how reading this alongside your tweens would lead to some great conversations!
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review.
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