A girl with a deadly lung disease . . .
A boy with a tragic past . . .
A land where the sun never sets but darkness still creeps in . . .
A bargain that brings life, but may cost more than anyone can imagine . . .
Madeline Oliver has never wanted for anything, but now she would give anything just to breathe. Jason Wu skates through life on jokes, but when a tragedy leaves him guilt-stricken, he promises to tell only the truth, no matter the price. When a mysterious stranger name Hanali appears to Madeline and offers to heal her in exchange for one year of service to his people, Madeline and Jason are swept into a strange land where they don’t know the rules and where their decisions carry consequences that reach farther than they could ever guess.
My Review:
This is my first foray into Matt Mikalatos' young adult writings. Having read Night of the Living Dead Christian, Dinner with a Perfect Stranger and My Imaginary Jesus I was very familiar with his Christian works. However, I had never read any of his young adult fantasy works.
The Crescent Stone is the first it what looks to be an interesting series entitled The Sunlit Lands. Imagine a world divided. One portion lives in beauty and sunlight and wealth. And yet they are plagued with a second group that lives in darkness and crudeness and ugliness. A war rages and this is where Madeline and her friends enter the story.
What would you do when someone offers you life in exchange for a year of service? Madeline barely hesitates to accept and is quickly swept into a world so different than her own along with her new friend Jason Wu. Madeline is spellbound by the beauty that greets her, while Jason is skeptical.
Mikalatos, in this fantasy world, brings up some very interesting real world questions. Is it ok to do something that harms someone in order to save someone else? Is it ok to allow someone else to volunteer take on pain and hardship that should rightfully be yours? Is your enemy necessarily your enemy, or is it a matter of perspective?
I really enjoyed the characters and the world that Mikalatos has created in this story, and I look forward to seeing what happens next!
You can order your copy of The Crescent Stone on Amazon here.
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