Yes, I have read an-other book. This one, however, was written by my cousin. She is writ-ing un-der the pen name Julianna Scott, and has recently written a book called “The Holders.” This book came out last month.
This book starts out with a young woman, around 17 years old, named Becca, who comes home from work to see her 7 year old brother, Ryland, hiding in the tree house. She goes up to see what is wrong, and he says that people want to take him away. Now ever since ele-mentary school the counselors have been trying to get him into a mental institution. She im-mediately rushes into the house to get “those people” out of her house.
This is where the book goes into some detail. The brother — Ry, as he likes to be called — hears voices. He’s always heard them, and he gets very scared and tells whoever he is around what the voices say to him. At first, people thought he had an imaginary friend, but these voices stayed. He went to the guidance counselors at school and they started sending people from mental institutions to their house because they want to lock up her brother. Becca and her mother always chased these peo-ple away.
Becca goes into the house to see two men are from a boarding school her father runs in Ireland. Quick side note, her father abandoned the family a few days after Ry was born, and Becca is very bitter towards her father. In a weird twist of events, it turns out her brother has magical powers to hear peo-ple’s thoughts, and he is what is called a holder.
Upon reading the first few chapters, this book reminded me greatly of the Harry Potter se-ries. A boy who doesn’t under-stand his powers and his purpose in life is taken to a school. Next he finds out he is powerful, has to defeat an evil person and a special object of power only he can use. It became very evident that Julianna read the Harry Pot-ter books.
However, underlying all of this is a girl’s struggle to forgive her father for leaving her. It is a struggle that this girl faced head on because she wanted to protect her brother.
Becca comes face to face with the man that she is furious at but has to work with him for her brother’s sake. This aspect of the story was absolutely touch-ing and so frustrating as a reader.
This book is the first of what is to be a series, and I would certainly recommend it for anyone who liked Harry Pot-ter, Lord of the Rings or just likes fantasy in general.
5/5 stars
Book review: The Holders
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