Fiction Friday (126)

 

After tackling a literary behemoth like Tropic of Cancer, I jumped into a recently published YA fantasy. I'm starting a teen book at my library and decided to choose something new and interesting to start it off. I've also been working on a bit of a fantasy book and figured this would be good research.

Havenfall by Sara Holland

(Bloomsbury, 2020)

Maddie Morrow feels uncomfortable in the world. No matter where she is, she is tortured by the memory of the monster that broke into her house and murdered her older brother. She feels the whispers about her mother who is on death row for the crime she didn't commit. The only place she feels at peace is at the Havenfall Inn, a mysterious mountain resort that has been under the control of her family for generations.

Havenfall is not only a quiet Inn where Maddie spends her summers, it also a place where many worlds intercept in the tunnels hidden in the mountains below. It a place where people from three of those worlds meet every summer; delegates who meet under guidance of Maddie's uncle, the Innkeeper. It's a role that Maddie hopes to inherit one day...however, that day comes all too soon when a series of shocking events propel the teenager into the biggest challenge of her life.

In the nicely crafted fantasy, bestselling author Sara Holland creates a rich world of magic, intrigue, and shifting alliances. At times, it telegraphs plot twists a little too much (I had most of it figured out pretty early on), but still manages to hold a few surprises even for careful readers. The "real world" issues it explores, those of love, betrayal, and not fitting in, do fall a little flat which is always an issue when YA fantasy attempts to be contemporary fiction at the same time. All in all, I found this a fun read.