Years ago, a plague happened that was called The Great Madness, it wiped out most of the population, with the rest being broken up by people with special powers, or ones who succumbed to the madness and are now feral. Now when kids enter into adulthood, they go into a trance and enter the realm called Changeland. Here they enter the change and either come back with powers, or feral.
Narrah and Arika are twins and at the age where their Change will happen anytime. Arika enters the Changeland first, but I'm not going to tell you what happens because that will ruin it ;), and then Narrah. Their lives are changed forever because of it and we are brought along for the ride!
It is very hard to summerise the plot of this because this is such a unique and intriguing world, that I will inadvertently spoil something, so I'll try to get my thoughts together enough to make sense.
Ok, so this was a pleasant surprise for me. I pretty much loved everything about it. The world building was amazing and incredibly vivid. It's set in Australia, which seems like an incredible place anyway, and goes from forest, to city (albeit derelict) to ocean. The author really brings the scenery to life and makes it very easy to visualise. Not only that, but we have the incredible Changeland. A pace where anything is possible, where you can see memories or sites you have never seen before. It's here where the twins meet The Anteater. (Again, I'm not going to explain this because it is best experienced!! Read the book and you will see who he is!!) The author nailed the setting and it really made the book come alive.
I also loved the characters. There were some varied and intriguing ones too! I loved the twins, their bond was awesome and I loved reading about them. I found all of the abilities to be intriguing and the characters more so. Weirin, Turah, The Anteater, the scientist, the people Arika meet along the way, all of these were well written and developed and I loved each of them.
So why only 4 stars? Well, I found that things got a little repetitive with the twins and felt like they were focused too much on missing each other some times, when they didn't have to keep on about it. I also found that the inner monologue the twins had was sometimes..... annoying but I think that had more to do with the quality of production than it did the writing!! Other than those minor things, this was an amazing debut book! This author is one to watch!!!!
Now, the narrator, Stephen Briggs, was really good. I'm so glad that the author picked an Australian to read it as it really worked well. Stephen himself did a great job with the narration and had a brilliant array of tones and voices that brought this story alive. What stopped him from being 5 star was the fact that the volume kept going up and down. It seemed like he spoke low and turned down the volume during the inner monologues and then turn it back to normal every other time. I found it annoying and distracting because if there was any background noise in my house, (and there always is with 4 boys!!) I'd have to turn the volume up and then turn it down again or else my ears were basted!! It took away from an otherwise flawless performance.
I was voluntarily provided this free copy by the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Fantastic book, I've never come across a title with ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2017
june finnigan - writer
A brilliant and vivid survival story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2016