Book Review: Orenda (Orenda #1) by Ruth Silver

3:13 pm 1 May 2014

A copy of this novel was provided by the author as part of a book tour.

Orenda is such a unique book, and Ruth Silver is one of my go-to indie authors for an action-packed young adult novel. I love the premise of parallel universes, and have not previously come across a YA novel that focuses on them so I was more than excited to discover that the plot of Orenda was based around them. Plus one, Ruth!

I loved the range of characters, but would have also loved to get to know them each a little better so that I could truly invest myself in their outcomes. For instance, I would have liked to have gotten to know Lil between when she experienced what she thought was a dream (but was actually the parallel universe) and when she entered Orenda. There were very slight differences between the Earth version of Lil and the Orenda Willow, and I think that if we as readers had been privy to more of Lil’s life prior to the immersion of the story into the parallel world, the distinction between the two could have been somewhat clearer.

Orenda is an incredibly fast paced novel, and even though every scene was integral to understanding what was going on, I think the book could have been a little longer – just to let me really wrap my head around the importance of each scene, and what they meant to the characters that were involved.

The concept of the parallel universe was explained excellently. I was not confused at all, and the explanations were given in a way that was not hard to understand, but that was also not an info-dump. I love lack of info-dumps and confusion when it comes to fantasy novels.

I would absolutely recommend Orenda to a reader who was thinking of entering the Ya reading realm, because this novel is a sweet gateway into the wonderful world of YA fantasy.