This is a change of direction for Natasha, showing her versatility and depth of authoring skills, writing here for a new audience, the young adult reader.
A fantasy novel set in a world that is centred around an Eternal Light, there is a new darkness emerging, bringing with it an atmosphere and actions that are not of the light. We see one family who recognise it for what it is, evil, and the story unfolds as they begin to work against the evil forces at play. Each of the young people has their own skills and begin to learn giftings that enable them to battle in new ways, finding new depths of strength and resilience.
An important factor for this audience is to have believable and engaging characters, which this manages well. The young people come with their own strengths, doubts and worries, and discover new depths to their abilities as they are deeply tested.
To me, another key to the fantasy genre is effective “world building”, as I often find it distracting, and hard work, to learn whole new environments and languages. This story keeps it to a minimum, with enough to keep reminding the reader that you are in a fantasy world, but not so much as it becomes confusing. And Natasha sets a very gentle pace with this aspect.
This is a safe book to recommend to young adult readers, who have a lot of fantasy genre titles available, but where the content is so often focussed on the darkness and evil to make them seem attractive.
The Christian content may not be overt, but the overall themes of light versus darkness, faith and spiritual battles are clear, and the audience will have no doubts about what is right and wrong.
I very much look forward to the next instalments to find out where this story goes.
Awakening The Light, by Natasha Woodcraft, is available here.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, but was under no pressure to provide a favourable review.
