Darkwood, the first novel by M.E.Breen, is a fairy tale adventure where the young orphan heroine, Annie, must unravel the mysteries of her past and her future while running both from and headlong into a dark, menacing danger.
Annie’s grim life in a world hemmed by a frightening forest is about to change forever when her uncle sells her to a scary man who will take her to “The Drop.” Afraid of the certain death that awaits her, Annie and her trusty feline companions, Prue and Izzy, escape into the dark wood. The wood is the most fear place of all because it is prowled by the kinderstalk, fierce creatures that devour children, and Annie barely hopes she can survive the night out in the open wood.
She does survive, however, and starts on a strange adventure from the depths of the woods, to a glittering palace, and back again to meet her destiny. Along the way she makes some strange friends, discovers that everything in Howland is not what she believed, and that there is more to her than she ever imagined possible.
Darkwood is set to be the first in a series of books about and it has a lot of potential, but I felt that the narrative and plot episodes were somewhat disjointed and erratic. While I enjoyed unraveling the mysteries along with Annie, I was distracted on more than one occasion by Breen’s style.
- Posted by Cori