Window on the World
I am a wife and mom of two grown children (who can't seem to move out) and two furbabies. I write about my family life, as well as causes that are dear to my heart, with recipes every Wednesday and book reviews every Friday. My favorite genre is historical fiction.
The Labyrinth Wall is part Hunger Games, part The Maze Runner, with just a smidge of Dante's Inferno thrown in for good measure. And even though I caught glimpses of all three of these amazing books, The Labyrinth Wall does not feel derivative in any way.
Araina is, in large part, an everyteen. She is that gangly bundle of angst that all of us embody at some point in our formative years. Her journey of discovery is our own revelation of feelings, abilities, knowledge, self-awareness and empathy.
The cast of characters Araina meets up with along her journey each embodies a different trait which Araina is trying to manifest in herself. Darith, her first friend, is recklessness. Rase, the castle guard, is secrecy. Korun, the healer, Keelie, the creative, Sol the strong, even Sir Riddles the brutally clever - all make up a part of Araina's whole. The more she discovers about each of these, the more she discovers about herself.
The Labyrinth Wall has an immense amount of emotional intelligence, but it is also an exciting adventure story. I gasped a few times in the story, wondering if all the characters would survive their trials. I laughed, cheered, talked back - all the things an engaged reader does with a really good story.
There are so many things
we can't explain,
Yet it is so true.
If we open our eyes, they are so very plain.
