Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/01/2024 In the middle of Henry’s twelfth birthday party, her wilderness-explorer father—missing for a year and presumed dead—staggers into their midst, babbling incoherently. His unexpected return triggers what amounts to an existential crisis in Henry, who is filled with questions about why he left her and her mother for so long and what if he leaves again? Perhaps if she were a better, more adventurous, daughter (i.e., more like him) he’d be content to stay. It’s the latter thought that leads Henry into Quinvandel Forest (the woods that had swallowed her father), and it’s what sends her plummeting into a location that shouldn’t exist: the Empty Place. Cole’s eerie fantasy realm is a literal world for lost souls, and it’s both a place of community and bewildering dangers. As Henry makes friends and endeavors to follow in her father’s footsteps, she must confront truths about herself and her father to find her way out. Readers captivated by cerebral tales and dark fantasy will be drawn to Cole’s latest, which, while heavy-handed in its metaphor, offers thought-provoking adventure. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.