Half World [Hardcover]

Declaring Hiromi Goto’s new novel at least 50 pages too short for its visionary plot and complex heroine may sound like a backhanded compliment, but the fact is that Half World does not do full justice to its own almost hallucinatory power. Like a Hieronymous Bosch painting come to life, Half World throws readers into a violent struggle to restore cosmic balance between the Realm of Flesh, the Realm of Spirit, and the Half World. The first two will be familiar to readers with a passing knowledge of world religions – the Flesh Realm is the material world in which we live out our mortal lives, the Spirit Realm a blissful domain attained by souls that have escaped the karmic cycle of death and rebirth. Borrowing from Buddhist, Christian, and other spiritual traditions, Goto creates a unique, purgatory-like place, Half World, where souls work off the karmic debts acquired in life before passing into pure spirit. When a cataclysm severs the three realms, the Half Worlders are locked into a perpetually repeating nightmare in which they relive their worst sins and traumas. The novel begins centuries later, when a miraculously pregnant Half Worlder escapes into the Realm of Flesh and gives birth to Melanie, a human child who may have the power to restore balance to the realms. Teenage Melanie’s journey back into Half World reads like an extended absurdist nightmare, with Melanie battling the sinister Mr. Glueskin, a cunning but insane creature holding her mother hostage. The violence and cruelty of Half World may frighten some young readers, but those with a taste for dark fantasy (and gore) will be thrilled by Melanie’s confrontation with her own fears and Goto’s nightmarish creatures (some of which are depicted in occasional stark illustrations by Jillian Tamaki). What’s missing is more of Melanie’s crucial “humble origins” story, the human years of poverty and humiliation leading to her heroic spiritual journey. Her dramatic confrontation with Mr. Glueskin could also have been further filled out without losing the reader’s interest. With a heroine and an alternative world this interesting, why not give the reader a little more?

"Half World is Boschean delight à la Goto: a magical, madcap, and deliciously creepy tale of tribulations, terror and triumph; a girl-power adventure in screaming jelly-toned colours." -- Nalo Hopkinson, author of The New Moon's Arms

"In Half World, readers are taken on a thrilling, poignant adventure where Eastern and Western mythologies are woven together. Commonwealth award-winning author Hiromi Goto has created a dark, otherworldly page-turner that will most certainly appeal to young adult readers regardless of whether they are speculative fiction enthusiasts. Goto’s elegant prose is graced by about a dozen black and white illustrations by the award-winning Jillian Tamaki. Her brush and ink illustrations superbly capture Melanie’s journey and the turmoil of the Half World. Goto has created an absolutely riveting tale that moves with cinematic pacing and vividness. Half World is nothing short of a masterpiece." -- Canadian Children’s Book News

"Myths and monsters, love and terror--Hiromi Goto is a master storyteller!" -- Ellen Klages, author of The Green Glass Sea

Melanie Tamaki is an outsider. The lonely, overweight yet malnourished only child of a loving but neglectful mother is just barely coping with school and with life. But everything changes on the day she returns home to find her mother is missing, lured back to Half World by the vindictive Mr. Glueskin. Soon Melanie begins an epic and darkly fantastical journey to save her parents. What she does not yet realize is that the future of the universe depends upon her success.

Japanese-born Hiromi Goto immigrated to Canada in 1969. She is the author of the award-winning Chorus of Mushrooms; a children’s novel, The Water of Possibility; and, most recently, the short story collection Hopeful Monsters.

Canadian illustrator Jillian Tamaki grew up on the Prairies (Calgary, Alberta). She is a gold medal winner in the Society of Illustrators and Society of Publication Designers. Currently, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.