Darkwood

by Molly Breen and M.E. Breen

Book Overview

Darkness falls so quickly in Howland that the people there have no word for evening. One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black. But darkness comes in other forms, too, and for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1599902591
• ISBN13: 9781599902593
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 273 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.7" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Unique tale skillfully written for the tween reader

M. E. Breen creates a dark, unique world in which her characters and story develop as light creeps into the many mysteries of Darkwood. The writing is un-insulting to bright readers and challenges them with rich details, complex sentences, and the occasional SAT word. Our heroine is a young girl with special gifts who braves the dangers of Darkwood to survive, but in the process rescues more than just herself through courage, intellignece, and good friends. A unique read that is both fun and challenging for the target reader.

A New voice, as close to De Lint or Card as I've found

I just finished Darkwood. Got it yesterday morning, and frankly had trouble staying away from it, even to work, even to sleep. It is a wonderful book. As close in quality as I've found to my favorites, Charles de Lint and Orson Scott Card. No gimmicks, credible, nuanced characters, and the first layer of an onion of a world. I can't wait for more. Congratulations. Well done.

An amazing, unique story

A lot of the fantasy I've read over the last few years seems to all be drawing from the same pool of ideas -- but definitely not this one! This is an incredibly compelling book. While it's great watching Annie (the main character) learn more about her world and her family, and about her own strengths, as the book develops, one of the things that made this book so amazingly real is that even the minor characters have a lot of depth to them. No one feels like a cardboard prop in this book! And while it's a dark fantasy in many ways, there's nothing here that feels dark just for the sake of the drama. And compared to a lot of other books I've read recently, I think the author does a wonderful job of balancing the dark side of this world with the strong and loving connections between the characters. On top of that, the author does an awesome job of creating a world in which all of the intense twists and turns in the story make sense -- and so the twists take you by surprise, but they still fit well within the story's world. As a result, it's an amazing book that just pulled me straight through to the end. I plan on handing this book off to some friends who have disappointed with the fantasy they've read lately -- I think this book will get them excited again. :D

A New Classic for Grown Up Children and Their Parents

Darkwood is a page-turner -- the best story you'll read this year. Like The Hobbit, without the violence. Simply written and straight-ahead, like The Old Man and The Sea. Lots to ponder about an only slightly magical world that is peopled with characters whose deeds seem mostly achievable and whose faults are all-too-recognizable in our "real" world. Darkwood's protagonist is EveryMan (in this case EveryGirl), but neither her gender nor her age matters -- each reader will be with her all the way. In this rich first novel, A Journey Begins. Don't miss the boat!

Compelling, with a strong young female protagonist!

As I read this engaging and vivid novel, I was reminded of two of my favorites, which interestingly are not much like each other: The Wizard of Oz and The Golden Compass. Both, like Darkwood, offer a richly imagined alternate world against which a young female protagonist embarks on a quest. Darker in tone than Wizard, but not as fearsome as Pullman's Dark Materials, this novel reads like the first in a potential series. I, for one, look forward to the next from M.E. Breen!