“Even though she’s only 12 years old, Lily McKinley already feels the weight of the world’s brokenness. She’s seen it in her mother’s exhaustion, her grandmother’s illness, and the cruelty of Adam, the bully at her school. But most tragically, she experienced it two months ago when her father died in a terrible accident.
As an artistic daydreamer, Lily has a brilliant imagination to help her cope, but that imagination often gets her into trouble. One day, it transports her to a fantasy world called the Somnium Realm, where her father’s secret history embroils her in an epic quest. With the help of a dragon guide named Cedric, Lily battles evil shrouds, harpies, and other creatures to find her way through grief, rescue the world from evil, and discover the power of redemption.”
Series: Book #1 in “The Dragon Keeper Saga” series.
Spiritual Content- Prayers; There are mentions of “our Creator” who is implied to be God & a unicorn called Prince Pax that is implied to be Christ (he says that he has “washed [someone’s] blood clean”) & he talks to Lily in her mind; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of special stones (called “soothstones”) that were mined from the rocks of Eden (“Eden? You mean, as in--?” “Yes, yes, It was mined ages ago, when all was good. Before evil broke into the world.” Later it’s added: “Long ago, when all was still good, [Lily’s] ancestors would envision a harvest, and trees would drip with ripe fruit. Creating was effortless, and it was always good. But then,” he leaned back into his chair, “evil broke into the world and corrupted everything. Mankind created for his own selfish gains, for self-worship, rather than for stewardship. And so, to prevent destruction of all the earth, his creative powers were limited. He could create only through toil, and what remained of his richest abilities were relegated to dreams. The Realm was founded so the imaginings of man could be monitored, cared for, and—in the case of malicious forms—confined.”); A mention of the Good Samaritan; A mention of a chapel;
*Note: ‘Thank heavens’ (once) and ‘merciful heavens’ (thrice) are said; The word “ghostly” is used to describe places or creatures eight times; The villain of the story is a dark dragon named Eymah who is after the soothstones (someone else says that “the future belongs to Eymah”; *Spoiler* He is defeated at the end by Prince Pax *End of Spoiler*); Merlin the Wizard is in this story and does an orb of purple light to get others’ attention; A siren has a gold light come from her hand to her shoulder to create a pair of wings; A mist elf/fairy creates a mist to fix broken things; Many mentions of Greek & Roman Mythology, characters, & creatures (harpies, minotaur, centaur); A few mentions of a place being on Eymah’s doorstep & his pit with fire; A couple mentions of the devilry of shrouds (evil monsters that shapeshift); A mention of aliens.
Negative Content- Minor cussing/Exclamations including: a ‘blimey’, a ‘flibbertigibbet!’, a ‘what the heck’, two forms of ‘idiot’, two forms of ‘what in the blazes’, three ‘dash it all’s, six ‘Great snails!’s and seven ‘stupid’s; Seeing a battle & death (up to semi-detailed); Lots of monsters attack Lily and her friends & Fighting and knocking them out (including illusions of loved ones and them turning into scary creatures, Lily’s creations being destroyed by the villain, Lily being concerned at multiple times that “this is the end” and she might die, and the deaths of two made-up creatures from Lily’s imagination and her feeling distraught about it *Spoiler* they appear again at the end just fine *End of Spoiler*, up to semi-detailed); Going through a maze that will show you your fears & stone you to stone if you fall for them (including Lily having negative thoughts and seeing coffins of loved ones and seeing others struggling with what they are seeing and someone turning to stone, up to semi-detailed); Fires, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, & Blacking out (up to semi-detailed); Being bitten by & carried off by rats (and also seeing snakes, roaches, and scorpions, barely-above-not-detailed); Lily is scared when she sees Cedric the first couple of times, thinking that all dragons are bloodthirsty and he is attacking her; Lily & her family are grieving the death of her father (barely-above-not-detailed, *Spoiler* It’s revealed part-way through the story that he is alive *End of Spoiler*); When Adam (a bully at school) taunted Lily about her father being dead, she leaps at him and they fight (mostly him hitting her, no adults come to stop the fight nor are any punishments are given (she goes to the fantasy world shortly after this, up to semi-detailed); Lily is teased at school and called a “midget” (because of her height) and a “freak” by Adam multiple times (more about him in the spoiler below); Arguing & Lily throws gravel at someone’s face when upset; When Lily messes up, she calls herself stupid and an idiot; Shrouds play mind games with Lily to make her feel hopeless and weak; Many mentions of monsters (including evil dark dragons), fires, & attacks (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of the possibility of dying, deaths, & others dying (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of dragons being bloodthirsty and “monster who feasted on the flesh of knights”, dangerous, and possibly being barbecued by them; Mentions of pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding (including animals/fictional creatures being in pain and their injuries, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a knight chasing after & putting his sword to a bully’s throat; Mentions of imaginary friends & them attacking their creator (including them breaking through the sands of a desert “as if rising from graves”, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of terrible smells, screams, & throwing up (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a bully, his mean comments, and him picking on others (including his smashing another boy’s lunch into the ground and Lily realizing that he’s said dozens of nasty things to make others feel like dirt and feels no remorse for his words *Spoiler* About half-way, he shared that his father left their family and Adam wants him to come back; a bit later Adam apologizes for something he did to Lily *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of lies & lying; A handful of mentions of stealing; A few mentions of wars; A few mentions of Lily’s father’s death (an accident and was lost at sea); A few mentions of nightmares (which are described as “the echoes of evil manifested in dreams”); A couple mentions of someone harming themself when upset about their past actions; A couple mentions of sirens leading sailors to their deaths; A couple mentions of kidnappings & going to jail; A mention of smoking a pipe; A mention of hatred; A mention of rumors; A mention of a bloody and starved dog; A mention of a horrific cartoon of a mammal that glued it’s tongue to a toilet;
*Note: A few mentions of brand names (Crock-Pot); A mention of kicking someone’s tail in baseball.
Sexual Content- N/A.
-Lily McKinley, age 12
P.O.V. of Lily
240 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{Minus a star for younger girls sensitive to deaths and/or others being hurt.}
{Certain parts can be triggering for adoptees or those whose parent left their family.}
There isn’t much Christian Middle-Grade stories being published nowadays, so when I heard about this one I was intrigued.
It was overall a very…interesting story with an allegory of Christianity, but it also had Greek Mythology characters and other fictional creatures like sirens, fairies, and Merlin the Wizard. I have to be honest that I’m not sure how I feel about those later two as it can make the whole plot be written off as silly or all fictional, when the Christian elements were decent. It gave it a mishmash of every standard fantasy character/creatures, but it’s possible I’m noticing this more as an adult reader.
One thing I thought was neat was that vocabulary found on each page of the story. Some uncommon words are used to describe events happening or certain features of this fantasy world, which gave the story a whimsical feel.
Something I wasn’t expecting, though, were that quite a few parts feel a bit heavier than I was expecting for a middle-grade story with some deaths and threats of deaths or being killed by the villain and his minions throughout the book. She “braces herself for the end” in more than a few parts. These sections will make or break this book for a younger reader. I think it will really depend on the reader and their sensitivity.
On the topic of heaviness within this story, there’s some parts and comments that I think could be triggering to adoptees or those who have had a parent leave them and their family. Lily has negative thoughts and the villain and his minions prey on that, especially regarding her father and that he must not have loved her enough.
I would be curious about the next book in the series since everything wrapped up decent in this first book, but I honestly don’t think I’ll be trying it out.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
No comments:
Post a Comment