RIVEN
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Seventeen year-old Emily’s dad is in prison for securities fraud and her mom's strung-out on pain meds, leaving Emily to parent herself and her younger brothers and sister. She’s got things mostly under control until a couple weeks before Dad’s release, when voices start whispering in her head, and Gabe, the hot lifeguard at the pool, notices the strange brands engraved on her arm...the ones she's trying desperately to hide. Emily doesn't know how the symbols got there or what they mean. They appeared overnight and now they're infected and bleeding. She's pretty sure she's losing her mind.
Stress, insomnia, and her wounded egos drive Emily to self-medicate, which has to be why the nightmares from her childhood have resurfaced, why they're commandeering her conscious even when she's awake. It has to be why the fairytale creatures she created as a little girl insist they need her help.
Triggered by the return of her childhood abuser and unable to cope with reality, Emily slips completely inside her elaborate fantasy world. She's powerful in the First Realm, maybe even more powerful than her attacker. It would be so easy to stay there, to lose herself in enchantment...to lose herself in love. But something sinister lurks in the forest shadows. Emily soon discovers her demons have followed her inside her fairytale. They're hunting her. With the help of the Fae, she frantically searches for the weapons she needs to defeat her greatest fears and escape back to reality before the man who tortured her can prey on her younger brothers and sister, too. Time is running out... (
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harris debuts with a heady psychological fantasy, first in a planned trilogy, that unfolds in the aftermath of trauma. For as long as 17-year-old Emily can remember, she has immersed herself in the magical world of the First Realm, which is occupied by the Fae creatures that, when visiting Earth, disguise themselves as insects like cicadas and spiders. Emily's home life offers plenty of reasons to escape: her mother is abusing prescription drugs, her father is in jail, and Emily is responsible for her younger brothers and sisters. After her mother overdoses, Emily, her siblings, love interest Gabe, and her Aunt Nancy travel to a relative's vineyard to await the release of Emily's father, whom Emily fears for reasons she is unable to confront. Harris's writing is polished, and she effectively explores Emily's maelstrom of psychological coping mechanisms. Secondary characters serve as welcome lodestars during the murky visits to the First Realm. When Emily finally awakens to reality, becoming able to reconcile her fractured identity, readers will feel a great sense of relief. Ages 12 up. (BookLife)