Rowan of the Woods
Christine Rose & Ethan Rose
Review by A. E.
Jaskiewicz
Rowan
of the Woods is a fanciful and intriguing book
about love, loss, magic and a centuries old quest.
With a likeable group of heroes, and a set of
villains that you can actually feel sorry for at points, they take you
on a
mystical tale that spans fourteen centuries and leads to the
twenty-first
century where a misfit boy has to take on an enormous responsibility.
The
story of Rowan of the woods mainly follows a young
boy named Cullen. We learn early on that
a tragedy occurred in Cullen’s life which led him to be an orphan. That is how he came to live with his
unsympathetic foster family, the Samuels.
Cullen has few escapes from his sorry new life.
One of the few he has is walking through the
Redwood Forest on his way to school every day.
On his birthday, Halloween, Cullen has something strange happen
to him
in the woods, and suddenly, his new friend, Rowan, is living in his
body. Rowan had been trapped in a magic
wand for
fourteen hundred years, and now he is hoping to find his only love,
Fiana, who
he was separated from on their wedding day.
The major problem, though, is that Fiana has become evil
throughout her
fourteen century quest for Rowan. If
Rowan and Cullen are able to find his bride, will she still be the
woman he
once loved?
The
story is primarily told through two points of
view. First, there is Cullen/Rowan. For most of the book, they exist as the same
character, or at least they share the same body. Through
the point of Cullen, we see a
tormented young boy who is teased by kids in school, and not loved by
his
foster family. Through it all, he
remains a good yet shy young boy. He
does have a few sympathetic people to turn to, though.
He has Ms. MacFey, his favorite teacher, and
his best friends, Maddy and April. These
characters serve the purpose they were intended for, and they serve it
well. They are the only release for the
young Cullen. The other character we see
much from her point of view of Fiana. We
see the torture and pain she must endure while looking for her beloved
Rowan,
and we get a great understanding of how she has become the evil entity
she now
is. Her only true and faithful companion
throughout the story is Marlin, who is a magical figure much like
herself.
While
the story is full of intrigue and mystery, there
are certain things in the story which never seem to be fully explained. One of the major things is what really
happened to Cullen’s family. We learn
that his Father and Sister died in a house fire, and that his Mother
went crazy
shortly after that, but that is the greatest extent we learn about that. Also, we see a glimpse of why Mrs. Samuels is
so bitter and depressed, but we learn little about Mr. Samuels or their
biological son, Rex. These are just two
of several instances where we see a little bit of why certain things
are the
way they are, but they never feel fully explained, and could leave the
reader
wondering about a couple of loose ends.
Overall,
I would say that Rowan of the Woods is a fun and
exciting book for teens. It will
definitely keep them interested until the end.
It offers a glimpse of the difference between good and evil, and
how
people could end up being either way.