Kim White

I received a copy of The White Oak from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Normally I'm not into the techno/coding/Matrix-y story, but I actually found The White Oak pretty good. At her fathers funeral, Cora, her brother and grandmother fall down a sink hole that was caused by underground tunnels underneath the white oak that was supposed to be dear old dads resting place. Cora is the only one to survive alive, and somehow is able to meet up with her brother's ghost in the underworld. I found the idea of The City rather creepy! All the gray souls going about their business, the puppet master Minos controlling everything in his tower, sort of like the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz. I'm eager to read the rest of the series to find out more about the gold magical pen, and what Cora is capable of, not to mention if she gets to put a face with her mystery mans voice. (less)… (mer)

This book has a very intriguing story. Cora Alexander falls through a sinkhole, while attending her father's funeral, and she ends up in the underworld. A strange and bizarre underworld, unlike anything even Hades himself could conjure.
Cora learned her twin brother Lucas is also present, although Lucas died in the sinkhole accident.

It's quite strange, indeed, but Lucas is more alive than the still-living Cora. I found her character to be....well, somewhat boring. She was not overly emotional. I think I would be screaming my head off if I ended up in the Underworld.

Also, it's hard to figure out what's going on. There appears to be two factions at play. King Minos and the Supreme Justices. There is also a strange artificial intelligence named Minotaur. Minotaur is 'assigned' to bring Cora to Minos. There is some strange prophecy that is hinted at, but not fully explained.

Nothing is fully explained. Hopefully the second book will answer some questions.
3/5 stars… (mer)

This review was originally posted on Tea, Daydreams & Fairytales on the 9th April 2012.

3.5 Stars

"After years of pretending at emotions, he'd grown to appreciate their mystery, their chaos and randomness. Sometimes they were predictable, one-dimensional, almost stupid - other times they were so confounding, complex, and exquisite that he was convinced humans really were as special as they thought themselves to be."

The White Oak is a dark and interesting tale that takes well known greek myths mixes it with Alice in Wonderland and produces an inventive and unique fantasy that is guaranteed to hook in the reader. The story starts off fast and without any build up you are taken straight into a climactic scene of Cora being buried in a sinkhole desperate and frantic before arriving in Asphodel (also known as purgatory) alive and disoriented. The novel then takes on you Cora's journey as she tries to escape the underworld with her life intact as no one knows what would happen to her soul if she really died while already in the land of the dead.

This is an action packed book and reminded me a little bit of early 90s adventure games (think Kings Quest). Each chapter introduces you to a new problem or adventure so to speak which keeps the plot moving at a good rate and also helps you visualise what the character of Cora is going through.

The biggest weakness with this novel is that there didn't seem to be enough time to really build and explore the characters. There is a tiny amount of backstory of Cora & Lucas's abusive father and mother who dissappeared, but considering what a traumatic childhood they had, both of them seemed incredibly well adjusted and I never once actually felt real empathy or sadness for what they had experienced in life. Cora was so bland for a main character, nothing seemed to really phase her and I just found her plain boring if slightly weird considering she sews seeds into dresses for no apparent reason.

The secondary characters were much more interesting and I really hope in the future novels we get to find out more about them. Minotaur as a computer program, how novel and fascinating! I love how he would change personas depending on the situation. Sybil was also very interesting and I loved the concept of everyone having their own book of life that all made up the entire story of the world - past, present and future. I'm also interested to find out more about the hatred between Minos and Sybil and how this is going to play into the over arching story.

The finale takes place in a courtroom discussing the possibility of Cora's execution (Alice in Wonderland anyone?) and then just as things start to get interesting the book ends. This is a pet hate of mine - regardless of whether a book is part of a series or a stand alone there needs to be some resolution to the story. Ending it the same way you would end a chapter is just completely exasperating!

Even though the book had its faults I still enjoyed the adventure and would pick up the sequel. Just don't go into this novel expecting anything profound, it really is more suited as a fun summer read albeit a dark one!

Thank you Netgalley and Story Machine Studio for providing me with a copy of this novel for review. The White Oak is being released today, the 9th April 2012.… (mer)