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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Review: The Last Garden by Jorge E. Ancheytta

In a remote mountain hideaway, Heidi, her brother Checo, and their cousin Coco live with some of the last humans on earth. Their world was destroyed long ago by a force known only as The Shadow, and only a few survived. When Heidi's and Checo's father crosses over to the dark side, the trio is called upon to find and rescue him. They learn that their father possesses the key to the mystery of the world's destruction and possibly the answers to their future. Armed with three instruments endowed with special powers, Heidi, Checo and Coco bravely descend to the dark side, not knowing what they'll see and who they'll meet. Joined by Koby, a dark side inhabitant, who is on their side, the teens seek both the man and the truth. What they discover on their adventurous journey is far from what they expect, and they soon find themselves faced with the task of saving both their own lives and the lives of those they love.


My Thoughts:
This book was introduced to me by my mother after meeting the author at a local festival. She was inspired by the story he told to the audience about his book that she bought it. She immediately insisted for me to read it and review it. I was looking forward to reading the book because I too was impressed by the author's story on how the book was created. The Last Garden was not perfect, but it was adventurous and entertaining. 

I was immediately captivated by this post-apocalyptic world it was set in. The thought of a shadow taking over the world and plunging the majority of the land into darkness was a little frightening. In the shadow land, any source of light immediately became extinguished. To make things worse for the survivors, strange monsters roamed around killing people. The descriptions of these monsters were chilling and had me wondering what they actually were.

Next, the three main characters were admirable. Heidi, Checo, and Coco were brave. They did not hesitate to jump into the darkness with the new acquired weapons to go rescue Heidi's and Checo's father. I liked how these three were very close and showed how loyal they were to each other. They were also very kind and generous with the people they encountered. The three would make others feel welcomed and protected. These characteristics made me adore all three characters.

Like I mentioned before, this book was not perfect. As much as I enjoyed the story, I could not help but notice the lack of editing. There were many grammatical and spelling errors that it had me cringing a few times. I was able to ignore the first few, but it soon became too hard to not pay attention to them. It slowed my reading down to the point that I didn't pick up the book again for another month. With some editing help, I think this book would have been amazing.

Overall, this was a great book aimed for teenagers. The setting of this post-apocalyptic world was frightening and the characters were admirable. Yes, it needed help with editing but it was still a wonderful start to a new series. It sure piqued my curiosity to learn what will happen next. I rate:

About the Author:
http://thelatinoauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ancheytta-225x300.jpgJorge E. Ancheytta was born in Guatemala in 1977. His family brought him to the U.S. when he was 12.
He married Gabriela Gallardo at the age of 24. They have two sons, Jorge Emmanuel and Allen Koby.

His love of writing emerged from his love of reading and from his older son.

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