4 out of 4 stars
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Dew Pellucid has written the most delightful fantasy. In The Crystilleries of Echoland, when a baby is born - called a Sound - an Echo-twin is also born who floats away to Echoland: a mirror-land, under the frozen Alaskan ground. Pellucid welcomes us to her see-through Echoland of people, trees, landscape, and skies. The story is realized for us by exquisite illustrations. A frozen, blueish, see-through world where "ice-fairies" rain sugarplum bubbles; this world is delicate, translucent and complete with many details.
We meet twelve-year-old Will Cleary - a Sound living in Alaska with his Mother and Father - but without his twin sister, Emmy. Emmy and Will disappeared when they were two-years-old, and Will returned a week later, without Emmy. Their disappearance is recorded in the Gravestone Book along with 1007 pages of other vanished-people. Will is the only one ever to have returned from Echoland; he had with him, Dea his wolf-pet and Damian his falcon-pet. Will’s Mother and Father have searched for Emmy for ten interminable years. Will has an idea to reproduce what happens when they were taken as babies and hopes this adventure will convey him to Emmy. Will, Damian, and Dea jump into the lake, and when Will wakes, he is in Echoland. Damian turns into a see-through glass-brown boy, and Dea turns into an exquisite girl made of mist. They looked like lucent strangers.
From here, Pellucid will dazzle you with an incredible journey, and you will meet scary Fate Sealers, and Fortune Tellers who control a hydro-electric plant called Mapal Anak. Will must find a place called Olam Shone. There is a map in an ancient book but where is the book?
Pellucid provides such well-chosen examples of personification: When talking about a Fate Sealer, she says, “five rasps slinked from his throat in place of laughter”, when talking about Will, she says, “Will’s heart leapt into his mouth and kidnapped his voice”, and again when talking about Will’s Dad, she says, "of course,” "answered the newspaper, unsurprised.”
Will, of course, must encounter many dangers; he is terrified at times, but his longing to regain Emmy forces him to search for the map, cross the bridge of scything scissors, and never to stop searching. We are with Will every step of the journey. When Will’s heart nearly stops with fear, so does ours. When Will gets through each difficulty, we do likewise. But does Will find Emmy or is it too late?
I like and enjoy many characters that Will meets and how he learns to cope in The Crystilleries of Echoland. He must determine who are friends and who are enemies, there are plenty of both, but it is sometimes hard to decide which is which. I love their names too, like Bog Slippery and the Splash brothers, Peter Patrick Peterson, a magician, and Will’s Echo, the Prince of Echoland. There was nothing to dislike in this captivating story.
I rate this story 4 out of 4 stars because every one of the 365 pages contains magic, beauty, imaginative ideas, fun, and fear. We learn about friendships and facing dangers, and never losing faith. I do not rate it 3 out of 4 stars because it is professionally edited and I found no errors. I recommend it to Y/A, children from twelve to 100+, and people who love fantasy and beautiful writing. Parents with younger children should decide for themselves whether parts of this are too scary for them.
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The Crystilleries of Echoland
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