Down The Wormhole by Ana Franco
Release date: March 17th, 2015
Publisher: French Press Book Works
The Pitch: “A young orphan girl bonds with four mythological gods while trying to find a true home for herself”.
I received an ARC from the author to read and review, so thank Ana Franco.
In a city there is a tiny lane that separates two orphanages – one for boys and one for girls. Inside live two very special groups of teenagers. These teenagers carry a secret and leave it tucked safely away in their mysterious lives.
Then one day, a girl named Kitty arrives. No last name, just Kitty.
Before Kitty has time to be astonished by the teenagers’ real identities, she is whisked into a magical realm that slowly unfolds her own. She must come to terms with her true place in the world while she can, because time is ticking and there are secrets in the wormhole.
Travel with Kitty and her new friends Down The Wormhole into a mysterious world of magic, mythology, and mayhem.
“Ana’s YA Novel weaves mythology with modern life and creates a magical tale that will attract readers from all genres.” – Pen Name Publishing.
“The narrative in this book was something else. I mean that in the best of ways. This: ‘She widened her eyes and opened her mouth, looking like an email emoticon’ was one of the best descriptions I’ve read in a book in forever. It had me laughing silly for the longest time.” – Blackbird’s Nest.
“Throw in a plot twisted with deceit, revenge, a magical bracelet, and a wormhole leading to the land of gods, and you have an enticing journey. Oh, and there is also the gratuitous love story many young readers seem to expect.” – Amazing Stories.
“Down the Wormhole is a good book. It’s barely 100 pages, so Franco does not waste pages with anything unnecessary to the story, which I am always appreciative of, especially if sequels are promised.” – Purple Owl Reviews.
To start off with we get a Lewis Carroll Alice in wonderland quote to set the mood:
“Alice laughed: ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said; ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’
‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’”
Alice in Wonderland is one of my all times favourites, so I was very nervous here – Was this going to be a copycat sort of thing?
I realised very quickly that Ms Franco has her own strong voice and has created a unique story using a blend of Nordic, Celtic and Egyptian mythology with modern day teenagers in all their overreacting drama filled glory.
The beginning was so strong. The first chapter of Eris and Sif fighting in The Land Above All Clouds was fantastic; I would have loved to have read a whole story up there about those two.
Once we swapped from Sif’s to Kitty’s life it lost a little bit of it lustre for me. I had to keep reminding myself thought-out the story to stop being an adult and enjoy the impossible happening.
My favourite character was the villain of the story, the Goddess of Chaos, Eris. But I think the aim was for people to love Kitty, Oops my bad. My least favourite character was Anna. Anna’s treatment of Kitty during labour put her right up there with the likes of Dolores Umbridge in my hatred of book characters.
The writing was choppy with a furious pace and to her credit Ms Franco fitted a hell of a lot of story into very few pages. I really wanted to love this story. It had some of my favourite things in it – mythology, magic, love and revenge. The synopsis sounded interesting and it had gotten a few good reviews. But I just couldn’t get into it. I read an ARC so I can’t comment on what the finished product will be once it is buffed and polished, but this version had a lot of mistakes (sentences with words out of order, misspelled words). I’m normally not one to nit-pick at grammar and spelling as my skills are very poor – if it doesn’t affect the story then I really don’t care. But I found it very hard to read this at times and I really do think that is what lowered my enjoyment. Once it is published I will buy a copy and re-evaluate, because there was real potential for an awesome story under it all and Ms Franco has a wonderful vision of a fantastic new fantasy world.
Blog – https://anaisthebookworm.wordpress.com/
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/anathebookworm
Twitter – https://twitter.com/anathebookworm
Publisher – http://www.frenchpressbookworks.com/
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