The Herbalist

By Devi Zhee Orbel

In the wake of a terrible loss, Gwen is driven forward by haunting dreams and waking visions. Now alone, she is hoping that by learning about her mother's past, that she'll be able to finally understand who she is, and where she came from.

Dad called Killdeer Isle a "backwards place" full of folk superstitions. Whenever he heard Mom mention it. Usually she'd pause a moment before agreeing that yes, it did tend to dwell in the past, and the world didn't really have room for places like that anymore. When I asked further, she would change the subject. Later I learned to stop asking. What was the point? Soon she was gone, and now dad was too.

After the death of her father, eighteen year old Gwen has no choice but to pick up the pieces. Already suffering the loss of her mother eight years earlier, she is left with her strict stepmother, Natalie. And while her stepmother encourages Gwen to focus on her pre-med studies and put the past behind her, something Gwen tries to do, she finds her reality plagued by nightmares and waking dreams won't let her.

Fearing she's going crazy after the loss of her parents and the pressure of starting university, Gwen loses herself in the green of summer, and the reassuring feeling of gentle leaves on her skin. As she passes them, the plants whisper to her in a language only a few are privileged enough to speak. They can heal minds and mend bones.

"That's us, wild like mother nature." Mom loved to say..."You can try, but you'll never be like them. One day you'll see that's a gift, my love," she told me just before she died. A gift, what a joke. I'd give anything to be normal and boring right about now.

After hearing the voice of the goddess on the wind, Gwen knows her place isn't in her stepmother's house or at university, but on Killdeer Isle, her family's ancestral home. However treading a path of serpents and shadows shows getting there will be easier said than done. When she finally begins to witness the dark faces of those she once trusted, Gwen learns that not everyone is as they appear, including her.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0B1YXZJG1
• ISBN13: 9798827023838
• Release Date: May 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.0"