Author: David Meredith
Title: Aaru
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Scf-fi
Rose Johnson is dying, she has leukemia and it has taken away her color and spark. She is weak, bedridden and gladly awaits for the inevitable. Her little sister Koren, is distraught, a gamut of treatments only seemed to have worsened her sister instead of bringing her some relief. She knows that Rose has accepted her fate but she can’t bear it. So it is not surprising that when a man in lab coat proposes that Rose try his new experimental treatment, she is the one who convinces Rose to try it – not ready to let go of her yet. For the sake of her sister, albeit reluctantly, Rose agrees to the try the new experimental treatment. It’s the miraculous results of the treatment that changes everything for Rose, and her entire family. It is this breakthrough that throws them into a tumultuous whirlwind they couldn’t have anticipated. The wonder that is Aaru.
Here we see David Meredith returning from his debut with Aaru, a book that boasts the same cinematic and crystalline strengths as his previous work but bringing in new unexpected depth, insight and experiential value. His writing delivers with each word and sentence. Strong diction and prose that adds impacting verisimilitude and emotion. The reader lives within the characters’ skin, feeling what they feel, thinking what they think, and for a moment loses a sense of themselves in the densely woven literary world the author has drawn. David has done the hard work bringing this world and experience into live, making it credible, sound and poignant.
Although Aaru is not laden with subject matter at this point it, the suspense and the thrill is a good sign of things to come in this series. A lot of major potential conflicts have been teased and hinted already. It is clear that this was just an introduction to a series of more impressive and masterfully crafted works to come, stories that will shine for the truths they propound and the worlds they weave. It is a book to be experienced for yourself. A vivid read.
Rating: 4/5
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