Rating: 2
Description: Thirteen-year-old Alison is a very ordinary girl whose history has only one spot of darkness - the night her mother died in a terrible car crash, with Ali as a passenger. However, all that ordinariness is put into question when Ali's world-view is thrown into chaos with the entrance of several fantastical creatures including a dumb but lovable troll and a sly leprechaun, complete with green skin. Ali learns that there is another world parallel to hers, and that the beings that inhabit that world (elves, fairies, trolls, and leprechauns, to name a few) are preparing an invasion of the human world. Ali must become a hero, bringing her friends, both her old human friends and her new magical companions, along on a journey through a mountain that contains dangers that Ali must face with heretofore hidden magical powers. She must gain possession of an ancient magical relic that is the only thing that can close the portal between the two worlds and save Earth from destruction.
Review: The premise of this book is interesting enough, but its execution leaves much to be desired. The magical elements, while agonized over in the main character's mind, are not fully explained and are therefore unbelievable. Ali herself is an unsatisfying character who alternates between helplessness and arrogant bitchiness, and her discovery of who she really is is forced and unnatural, not at all fitting with the whiny teenager the book presents her as. Ali's companions on her journey are decently characterized but play only a very minimal role in the story and seem to serve as backdrop to Ali's adventures (the book would've lost very little, plot-wise, if they had been excluded altogether). The plot moves along, sometimes quickly and sometimes way too slowly, and it would be acceptable if the reader cared about the characters. However, without relateable and interesting characters, this book is severely lacking in much of anything. I would recommend this book to very young teens, as I feel that I would have enjoyed this book much more if I had read it when I was 12-13. It reminds me vaguely of T.A. Barron's "The Ancient One", so fans of that may think "Alosha" worth a look. Overall, however, "Alosha" is an unsatisfying book whose real world elements do not mesh with its fantasy elements well at all.