Ice+22-+Book+Review+1

Darkhenge Greenwillow Books, 2005, 400 pp. Catherine Fisher

Chloe Mcguire has been in a coma for three months and her family is trying to stay strong. Rob, her older brother, decides to take a job at a mysterious local archeological dig. One day he and his friend Dan happen upon a group of people that were waiting for a person that was a cauldron- born, someone who could go between different worlds. Dan and Rob thought it would be funny to watch them and make fun of their strange ways. Rob continued watching when all of a sudden something strange happened. A man appeared from no where and these people thought he was the one they were waiting for. They asked him to tell them a secret word that only the cauldron-born would know. This man, whose name was Vetch, said the word was Darkhenge. This was the word that they were looking to hear; this man was the cauldron-born. A few weeks later, they discover something amazing and strange at the archeological dig. A tree was growing upside- down in the ground. Vetch said that this was the entrance to the Unworld where he thinks Chloe is, and he is proved right. They go down to the Unworld in search for her. They find a healthy and happy Chloe living peacefully with the king of the Unworld. She hates Rob for treating her like a silly little girl and she doesn’t want to go back. She has discovered that she is powerful and can make almost anything happen. She is sinking deeper and deeper into the Unworld while Rob and Vetch are trying desperately to get her to come back. If she gets past the seventh caer, the deepest level, and sits on the thrown, nobody, not even the powerful Vetch can bring her back. So what does she decide, go back to the regular world where Rob will always be better than her, or become ruler of the Unworld, the land of imagination that she has made her home. Ever since I read the back cover of this book, I was dying to read it. Once I started I couldn’t put it down because I wanted to know what happened to Chloe and Rob in the end. This is a thrilling, suspenseful and spectacular novel about how two people that are so different struggle to live together peacefully. The hatred and jealousy building up in this girl might just be enough for her to forget everybody and everything she once loved and cared about. I recommend this book to everyone, especially people that love fantasies and mysterious novels. This is a perfect novel if you have a good imagination and you love a happy ending.