The Separated (Tales of Terre)

Troon Harrison
Brown Barn Books (2006)
ISBN 0976812614
Reviewed by Ian McCurley, (age 13), for Reader Views (1/07)

The story begins when Vita, a girl of 15, loses her mother in a rock slide.  She must then take on the duty of the Keeper.  The Keeper is a position in which she must travel to the 13 sites in the mountain and recite the magic words that keep the Corno d’Oro stallion invisible.   The Corno d’Oro is the magical animal that protects the villages in the mountains.

One day, Vita is visited by a redheaded girl pretending to be a maiden named Rosa.  She is actually the daughter of Lork Maldici, the evil ruler of Terre.  Rosa entices Vita by the offer to come to Genovera, the capitol city of Verde, where the nobility live in happiness, ignoring the mounting war and poverty of the common people.  While Vita’s boyfriend, Giovanni the pirate, fights the dragon Dragomar, who keeps the pirates under his curse of greed, Marina, the sea witch’s daughter is a trying to understand why she can’t do the magic of the sea.  Marina meets Giovanni and they travel to Genovera to attempt to bring Vita back before the equinox when Vita must repeat the sacred spells again.   In this tale of dragons, evil lords and majestic animals, three teenagers must learn that the world is not as they first thought and that they themselves are not who they think they are. 
 
The author writes in such a way that you can actually envision what is happening, and the story will come alive as you read it.  The author’s main point is to show that as these teenagers grow up, they change.  As these teenagers change and mature, they gain freedoms and responsibilities that they have never experienced before, just as real teenagers might.

“The Separated” is for young readers, ages 12 and up, who enjoy fantasy or sailing.    If you enjoy either of these topics, you will like “The Separated.”   In this book, three teenagers learn to appreciate what they have and find out where they truly belong.  Troon Harrison expresses this in “The Separated.”  I’m looking forward to any future installments of the series “Tales of Terre.”

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