The Watchers (Abaloc Book 6)

By Jane Louise Curry

Book Overview

At war with his stepmother, in trouble at school, and desperately unhappy, thirteen-year-old Ray finds himself shipped off to distant family in the high mountain hollows of Western Virginia. There Ray encounters a strange world of mystery, where nothing quite makes sense. The mystery deepens when he discovers a great stone snake carved on the wall of an old coal mine high in the hollow. A piece of that stone draws Ray into a conflict that echoes an ancient tragedy played out over sixteen hundred years before.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1625248873
• ISBN13: 9781625248879
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Harding House Publishing, Inc./Anamcharabooks
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 13 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Quiet, compelling magic

This is one of a series of interlocking novels by the author, in which Welsh myth (with more than a touch of Tolkien) fuses with Native American legend & myth. As our young protagonist begins to experience timeslips, he (and we) get tantalizing glimpses of a rich fantasy world of American pre-history, one which has never been recorded. Slowly we begin to realize that this simple family, which many might dismiss as nothing more than hillbillies, is actually descended from forgotten Welsh mariners, perhaps with a touch of Faerie at one time ... and that even though they themselves have forgotten their purpose for remaining in their green backwater, something ancient & evil is buried beneath the land they own & guard. And that evil is waking ... In this & several other novels, Jane Louise Curry creates a unique mythic world, one which deserves to be much better known. I've always hoped she would one day write a longer novel set firmly & completely in the fascinating past of these novels, all of which deserve reprinting in a uniform edition, perhaps even a boxed set. Highly recommended!