Author: Piper Kelley
Series: The Gloom (book 1)
Publisher: Piper Kelley
Release Date: 23rd June 2012
ASIN: B008E9HWVY
Synopsis
To the faeries in Winsome, the Gloom is a living nightmare. Few have braved to enter the dangerous land engulfed by the Gloom, and even fewer have made it out whole. In desperation, Queen Augusta, ruler of Winsome, turns to Poppy, a human with mysterious ties to the faeries. Poppy must rely on her wits and her bravery in this strange new land to put a stop to the Gloom and bring Winsome back to life.
My Review
I was sent the entire trilogy in ebook format in exchange for an honest review. This is part of the batch of reviews I have been trying to catch up with. Can't believe I let them sit there so long. But good news is I'm getting back on top and have almost cleared the pile. So apologies to Piper for the very long delay.
I loaded this onto my ipad and it said 400 pages, with it being the first part of a trilogy my heart sank a bit, I thought it would take me a while to read, but then I realised it was the formatting, the pages and text came up huge, there was probably about 170 pages worth of writing in the end, so I ended up reading it very quickly. (In fact I read the entire trilogy in one day, reviews of book 2 & 3 to follow).
Poppy thinks she is relatively normal, she lives with her dad, stepmum and little sister, she never knew her mother, she left when Poppy was still a baby, her dad won't talk about it and Poppy finds it's best not to think about it. But then one evening after an argument with her stepmum Poppy goes to sit in the garden by the old tree, she knows it was a favourite place of her mums and she likes to sit there too. But whils sitting there she gets a visit from a very strange looking creature who takes her through a portal in the tree to the magical world of Winsome. She is told that she is the only one who can get rid of the 'Gloom' an area of darkness and madness taking over the land.
I liked the set up of the two worlds and how they connected together and the different areas of Winsome. I really enjoyed the sense of magic and the fact you were never quite sure what could happen next or who would appear. In fact the whole world was very well constructed and written, I could visualize everything and felt a part of the world.
My only down to this book was the fact that I couldn't really cage how old Poppy was supposed to be. She was old enough to babysit her little sister, but she couldn't drive yet, so I would guess somewhere between 13-16 although I think kids younger than 13 can technically babysit, at times she was quite young sounding, a little whiney and scared in places and her language seemed a little bit young. I couldn't really get a proper image in my head of what she looked like as I couldn't decide on age, I mean I had a rough image from hair and eye colour etc, but was a bit confused otherwise.
Which was strange, because with characters like Augusta, Benny, Peregrine, her dad and step mum and little sister I could visualise them all quite easily, they were very well set up. It's not a big grumble, but I did wonder throughout. I could also never picture what Gus and Sug were meant to look like, described as being imps but looking like pieces of firewood, they are small enough to sit on her backpack, yet she cradles him in her arms like a baby. Wasn't sure how to picture them, had an image of something that looked like a cross between a cockroach, a stick insect and a sort of Gollum looking creature. Very peculiar.
Being quite short the pace is good and flows very well, I read through quickly and enjoyed the storyline. It was a good read and I did want to go onto book 2, but there were just a few details missing I think.
If you want a good fantasy adventure I would recommend it though, easy to read and good fun.
My Rating
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