The Wreath [Paperback]

The Wreath is the story of Kassandra, a young woman lost in a world in which she does not belong. She was born in the sea but grows up with a morbid fear of water thanks to the torture of her governess, Ms. Ithilbrix.

The Wreath turned out to be far more than I expected, with an inventive magic system that uses water, wherever it flows, something like a molecular network. A connection can be made from the faucet in my kitchen to a well in North Carolina. Fascinating stuff, although I wish more time was spent in the water. For a tale with cities at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and prisons in the abyss, much of it is spent as far from the water as possible, at a school/orphanage in the middle of Nebraska.

The setting is fairly typical (except for the location. How many fantasy stories take place in Nebraska?) and follows a fairly conventional line: a child grows up away from her parents, beaten and intimidated by a horrible governess, but at every turn there is something unanticipated and wonderful. The Wreath is full of surprises.

Kassandra has magic and other powers that have not been revealed or she has not yet explored, but she does not trust them. She does not solve her problems with the usual array of fantasy techniques, solutions out of thin air. She turns to what she has learned in her science class about the structure of water molecules. The Wreath is an unexpected combination of magic and science, colliding worlds, old and new, and the hidden exchanges between earth and sea.

The Howard's (father and daughter) have created an amazingly detailed world on the foundations of old and mythic worlds. The Wreath is stuffed with ancient Greek mythology, place names, legends, immortals who still live in the depths of the ocean.

Those who love Harry Potter or Garth Nix's Sabriel and Lirael will love The Wreath.

The book ends precipitously, perhaps a little too quickly, unless a sequel is underway.

I wanted to catch up on some fantasy reading, and luckily, this was the perfect book to pick. The story is set in Nebraska, about a orphaned girl Kassandra, who never cries, and is afraid of water. It is about how she discovers her true self. About how she can breathe under water, command gigantic water monsters and is a key in a epic battle to control the world's seas. Well, if I elaborated more I might give away the plot. The book is fast paced, lots of action, lots of magic, and science. The best part though, I really liked how the author made me care about the Kassandras' struggle against the forces of evil. Kudos on that!! I loved it!

This is the story of Kassandra, a just turned thirteen year old girl living at St. Clement's Educational Center in central Nebraska, and afraid of water. She has only two friends in the entire school and the school bullies pick her on due to her being different. For one thing, she has scar tissue between each finger and toe, she cannot cry -- not a single tear, and Ms. Ithilbrix the governess of the girls 9-15 year old hall seems to have an unhealthy and painful attraction to the young girl.

On her thirteenth birthday, the 9-15 year old department headed to Red Bear Lake. This is not a trip for her birthday; in fact no one seems to remember except her. The trip goes fine at first, Kassandra finds a nice large tree to read under and enjoy the day, peacefully. Plus she wants to be as far away from the water as possible.

Unfortunately, Ms. Ithilbrix crashes into her and for punishment, orders her onto a leaking canoe with the school bullies, who row out to the middle of the lake and rock the canoe until Kassandra falls in...And this is where the story really takes off.

Fighting her way to the top but unable to make it, she succumbs to the murky depths and inhales water. Inhales? Yep, Kassandra can breathe under water, and she can swim too. This is bliss, she is confused, yet happy and she feels perfect (at home) in this underwater world.

Then she hears a beautiful song, a song she thinks is from her mother. The soothing lyrics lure her deeper into the blue when they suddenly stop. Searching madly, she swims deeper into the murk. Suddenly, a green...sea monster attacks her. It looks kind of human, apart from the skin tone, the large teeth and the ability to breathe underwater.

With a scream, "Go away!" the sea creature leaves as if her words were like arrows.

From this moment on, her life will never be the same. She wears a Wreath passed onto her by her mother, when Kassandra was only a baby. To hide her from a King, the child is left on a rock in the middle of a stormy ocean. Gregor is a fisherman sent to pick up the child and deliver her to a woman who collects heart shape pebbles on the beach. He fails and Kassandra is sent by the king to St. Clements and the torturous hands of Ithilbrix.

It seems as though the Wreath wearers are all inside the Wreath when they die. Two have awakened when Kassandra awoke in the Lake. In this book you will meet Wreath wearers, Praxinos and Andromache (who teach her old Greek and sword fighting technique in her sleep and are always at each other's throat), and Kassandra's relatives from the house of Rexenor. You will also come across the Olethren, a 250,000 strong, army of the dead and an amusing science teacher. Let's not forget: River-witches, mages, and ocean creatures of tremendous size, which emerge from a single teardrop.

I found this book very interesting, my first ever full on fantasy and YA, since I myself was a Young Adult. I feel a lot of kids and those young at heart (re: Harry Potter) may enjoy this book. I did at first think the size of the book is a bit of a put off, especially at trade paperback size but the story flows very fast and barely lets up throughout the entire ride. There were a few lengthy scenes on the properties of water via the science teacher. I was wondering after finishing the book, "Were those `talks' really needed?" and I don't think they were. Most readers don't need hard details or facts to be taken away by a story; they just need the storyteller to be good with the set-up and delivery, and Chris Howard, with the help of his kid-daughter, sure can tell a story.

You'll be whipped away and totally enthralled from the introduction of Kassandra and the weird things that happen to her as she learns her destiny and discovers her family. Family seems to be the main theme of this story. Humor is strewn throughout in all the correct places, breaking up the suspense and giving us time to take a breath, though not a long one, before the plot is laid on us again.

You won't be disappointed picking up this book and taking it home with you, and it is a story your entire family can read and enjoy.

Writing style: 3.9/5 (overuse of `like a...' and `as if...')
Plot: 4/5 (very gripping and has the possibility to be extended and built on)
Back story/ reasons of character actions: 3/5 (Some of the reasons why things happened the way they did were not clearly explained. There was just enough information for me to nod my head and say, "Oh, I see. Okay. Cool.")

The idea behind this book has the possibility to be so much more. I'd like to see it extended into a mini-series as it ended with such a nice ending, leaving a lot of room for the next book.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  4.8 out of 5 stars