darkhills.jpgTalking animals,  a loose plot…and a lot of fun.

Twelve-year-old Alexa is excited to spend another summer in Bridewell with her father. Bridewell is one of four villages enclosed by walls. The village leader, Warvold, built the walls to keep out evil, but as his death approaches, he begins to wonder if the walls fostered more harm than good.

In his dying moments, Warvold voices his doubts to Alexa in the form of a parable. Alexa uses the information she learns from Warvold, and a key she takes off of his corpse, to try and uncover the truth about the dark forest surrounding the villages.

With the help of stones carved by Warvold’s wife, called Jocastas, Alexa discovers a map that shows the way outside the walls. She follows the map into a dark tunnel. When she finally emerges on the other side, she is greeted by a two-foot-tall man named Yipes. Yipes leads her on a seemingly pointless quest into a pool of cold water. She stands around for a while, and then picks up a glowing green stone that gives her the ability to talk to animals.

This helps when she embarks on the next part of her quest. Darius, a lonely wolf, tells her she must climb down a second dark tunnel. She does so reluctantly, but is rewarded when she learns a key piece of information about the threat outside the walls. It ends up that Warvold’s dying suspicion was correct. By building the walls, he created new danger, rather than keeping any existing danger out.

On the final part of her journey in the woods, a bear named Ander warns Alexa that someone inside the walls plans to betray the villages and let in the threat that looms outside. With the help of a squirrel, Alexa must find out who the traitor is before Bridewell falls.

Most aspects of Alexa’s quest lack motivation. The clues that move the plot forward pop out of nowhere (gifts from the fictional gods?). So, yes, Carman’s first novel suffers from poor plotting, but I still found some redeeming aspects. A. talking wolves are always good (for me, at least ;) ). B. a lot of the action takes place in an old library (I’ve always been a sucker for old books). C. who knows? Maybe I’m just in a magnanimous mood today (wow, that’s a big word). Overall, not a bad first effort.

DweebMeter: 2/5

Land of Elyon Website

Review on kidsread.com

Land of Elyon on Wikipedia