The Red Leaves and the Living Token

Red Leaves and the Living Token by Benjamin David Burrell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received a free copy of this book for my honest review.

This was a wonderfully original story created in a different world inhabited by three types of beings that represent three types of nature. The Zoen are furry creatures that are very animalistic looking. The petra have a very rocklike look about them. The Botann are green and very plantlike in appearance. The greatest difficulty for me was keeping straight which characters were which. It would have been helpful if at the front or the back there would have been a guide to the three types of creatures and which characters were which. A map of the area would have also been helpful.

Emret is a Zoen boy who has been struck by an illness. The nature of this illness is never really explained. It just said his binding is failing, I had many questions about what exactly that meant, but I understoon that he was dying. Confined to a wheelchair, Emret is fighting for a way to survive when he is drawn by stories of his nurse to find the Red. His father, in the meantime, doesn't believe these stories and tells her to stop giving his son false hope. Finding the living Token on the beach, Raj, Emret's father, comes to believe the stories true after all. However, his son and nurse have already disappeared.

This is a wonderful story, a wonderful adventure, filled with hope and struggle and about family learning to trust and believe in something bigger than themselves. The ending was a definite cliff hanger and left us definitely looking forward to the next book. I would recommend this to anyone that loves a good YA fantasy and looking for something original.



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