This title, The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau, was brought to my attention by a cousin of mine living in Trinidad. The author, the daughter of my cousin’s close friend, was born in the United States and moved to Trinidad for part of her primary and high school years and is now a medical doctor living in the States. This title is also the Editor’s Pick for best science fiction and fantasy at Amazon Books. Honestly, I really enjoyed this read.
This creative, moving and sometimes suspenseful novel deals with loss, love and family ties. The bond between two sisters, 22-year-old Laine and 18-year-old Alyssa, is explored, tested and stressed as they occupy different realities after a tragic car accident. Each chapter alternates between these realities, one modern-day and the other a parallel magical, fantasy world.
Twenty-two year-old Laine is left alone with the responsibility of caring for her disabled sister and trying to keep the family home. She had to leave college, works in a coffee shop and also gives horse riding lessons part-time. Unbeknownst to Laine, Alyssa, who is confined to a wheel chair and non-verbal, is in fact functioning in an alter realty, a place called Mirendal, where she and her family are royalty. In Mirendal, Laine and Alyssa’s parents, the King and Queen, are in danger in the Dark Forest after an attack (the accident). Alyssa, cursed as a changel, is trying to find her parents and also warn her sister of the danger they are all in.
Now, while reading I’m thinking that Alyssa is immobile and non-verbal, but is this where her mind is, in this world of Mirendal? She goes to a daycare facility daily and the caretakers drug the patients when they become violent or troublesome. When she is drugged, Alyssa goes further into different planes/realities of this magical world. Here in other planes, she meets creatures that help in her search for her parents. She can communicate with the other disabled, non-verbal patients in this fantasy world as well – they are also cursed changels. This is Alyssa’s reality while locked in a non-functioning body.
To complicate things, Laine meets two men who may be interested in her – a doctor who frequents the coffee shop where she works and a therapist from the daycare Alyssa attends. From contact with the therapist at the daycare, Alyssa is convinced that this therapist is dangerous, means her and Laine harm, so she believe she must find a way to warn her sister.
While spending time with the therapist, however, Laine does find out that he may be dangerous and that he may have abused her sister at the facility – he takes trinkets from patients. She found something of Alyssa’s in his apartment. This therapist, Laine fears, is using the facility as cover to abuse the vulnerable and she has to find a way to stop him.
The bond between Laine and Alyssa is quite strong, very moving. The author, through her life experiences, personal and professional, gives the reader her own perspective of what brings family together through love and loss and also of patient care, physical and mental – I suggest you read the author’s note. The fantasy, alter-reality elements of this novel are captivating, as well as emotional and incorporate some elements of Trinidad folklore – nice to read for a change.
In my view, reading The Princess of Thornwood Lane may lead you to ask the questions – What is happening, if anything, when you can’t reach a person by communicating – is the person active in any way? Are they aware of you trying to reach them and unable to respond, basically trapped in their non-functioning body? Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by talented author, Khalia Moreau. I hope you pick up a copy and give The Princess of Thornwood Lane a read.
