Faelorehn (#1 The Otherworld Trilogy) | Book Review

This review contains no spoilers and no reference to events or character information that may ruin your reading pleasure.

Faelorehn
Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

Book 1 - The Otherworld Trilogy

I never heard him come after me and even as I climbed the slope and stumbled onto our shaded back lawn, I didn’t look back. It was like the day the gnomes chased me all over again, but this time I was not escaping some horrible little creatures, I was fleeing from an incredibly good-looking guy who could very well understand me completely. I was either saving myself from that serial killer I always imagined lived down in the swamp, or I had finally gone over the deep end...

Meghan Elam has been strange her entire life: her eyes have this odd habit of changing color and she sees and hears things no one else does. When the visions and voices in her head start to get worse, she is convinced that her parents will want to drag her off to another psychiatrist. That is, until the mysterious Cade MacRoich shows up out of nowhere with an explanation of his own.

Cade brings her news of another realm where goblins and gnomes are the norm, a place where whispering spirits exist in the very earth, and a world where Meghan just might find the answers she has always sought.

Recommended for those who enjoy:
Supernatural revelations, Celtic myths and legends, discovering your true identity, beating the bullies,
friendships formed, teen romance blossoming.

This book was a particularly slow builder and the same aspects of the story kept being played out without much development each time. Despite this lack of development, I did find the book easy to read as it was simply written and therefore quick to read each page. I would say that this book is aimed at the 'Middle Grade' market though as I felt the content was very tame and the simple English used made it very easy to read.

I didn't warm to many of the characters as they were all too 'angsty' for me and the aspects of the characters which seemed to tie into the plot never actually did tie into the plot as the main character researched everything herself and then got her 'new friends' to help fill the blanks. This made the friends characters void to me and I didn't quite understand their responsibility to the story. I did however like the character, Aiden, who is Meghan's younger. He suffers from a learning difficulty and, considering this book is aimed at younger readers, I like that it wasn't afraid to include this within his character. I do feel that more could have been developed with the relationship between Meghan and Aiden though.

This book's strengths were its strong links to Celtic myths and legends and that its firstly introduced the to the reader and then developed to fit the story. This aspect was my favourite as I love anything supernatural history (e.g. Merlin) and this is the main reason this book gets it 3 star rating. The author has clearly carried out in-depth research in Celtic myths and legends and this comes through into the story.

The last quarter of this book, when the action actually starts and we discover the answers to all of Meghan's questions, seemed rushed to me and when some of Meghan's questions can't be answers I feel this is a disappointing method of holding back information in order to read the next book. I can't fault this in itself, however when a character just plainly states "I can't tell you that right now", it was all rather annoying!

I am unlikely to continue this series as although I did enjoy this book, I am not eager to discover more of the story. I do however believe this would be an excellent book for children/early teens that not avid readers.

Over to you:

Have you read Faelorehn, what did you think of it?
Should I continue with the series?