Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2022 The wonder of meeting mythical beasts in a British woodland preserve takes a back seat to trauma and emotional turmoil in this tale of 12-year-old American twins—Zac, raised in near-total isolation due to severe asthma and allergies, and his fiercely protective sister, Lu—who are shuffled off to relatives they’ve never met a month after Zac finds their mother dead in the kitchen. As if struggling to cope with grief, guilt, and, for Zac, exposure to a whole new set of potentially deadly allergens aren’t challenges enough, the twins soon discover that they are members of a family forcibly tasked with tending to Wildewoods, a hidden sanctuary for sometimes-dangerous magical creatures. Adding to the pall, Carter adds in two thoroughly unlikeable characters (including a caustic aunt, half of a same-sex couple in charge of the household) and very nearly kills off both Lu and her cousin Penelope, the one other young girl here, on the way to an ending that is, if not entirely happy, at least less fraught. Share with readers more comfortable in Fablehaven than Narnia. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.