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What starts with a simple plane ride among teenage friends ends in disaster when a storm sends the aircraft crashing down in the Canadian wilderness. Miraculously, the five youths are brought to a hidden village of a mysterious people who tend to their wounds. Much to the surprise of the teens—Jag, Kody, Aari, Tegan, and Mariah—the village Elders eventually reveal to them that they are likely a part of an ancient prophecy that includes dark times for the world that only they can overcome. All this is a lot for the kids to take in, especially when they're preoccupied with wanting to get home and search for their missing pilot, Kody's father. When a mysterious illness begins claiming the lives of the villagers, the five teenagers and their new allies are thrust into a dangerous position where they must learn new skills and cooperate to even have a chance of making it home.
The story of this compelling and entertaining young adult novel is one of overcoming adversity and doing the right thing, which makes it all the more appropriate that a portion of the book's sales do the very same thing for children in the real world. The characters are all distinct and work well as an ensemble cast. The action is slow to begin but in the closing acts of the book becomes so prevalent and intense that the build-up is forgivable to make room for such an action-packed finale. A title like this is screaming for adaptation as a successful film, television show, or even a continual series of novels that young and old readers alike can devour and become drawn into with its mythology and entertaining characters.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review