The Writer

Emily Sun Li

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

What if you could Write things alive? Maybe you would Write yourself millions of dollars, or a pet dragon, or even an entire world. But what happens when the bad guy can too?

Pren was supposed to be a perfect world - where grass is blue and skies are purple, where fathers are wood-whittlers and the birds sing Mozart. But if perfection is in the eye of the beholder, then June can point out some major flaws - to her, Pren is just too boring. There, June is considered a freak because she's normal. Normal, that is, until an extraordinary series of events leads her to realize that when she Writes, things come alive. Desperate to escape the normality of Pren, June runs away to the chaotic world that she has Written - called Earth.

She ends up in modern-day New York City, a hubbub of lights and the smell of roasted peanuts. Life gets more complicated when June is introduced to a Council of Writers, where each Writer is responsible for his or her own fantastical Written world. And things get downright thorny when one Writer, Victor, pursues the single goal of reWriting his past - a power reserved to the Master Writer, who happens to be his mother. As he threatens to destroy the fragile balance of the chain of Written worlds, it is up to June and her newly-found partner, a Writer of sorts himself, to find a compromise - if there is any - between new friends and new enemies.

Review by Paul Lappen (300913) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Rating 9/10
June is your average resident of the planet Pren. It's a beautiful place, with colorful trees and flowers, and birds who tweet Mozart. According to June, it's also really boring. Out of frustration, she fashions something called a pencil out of a piece of coal, and sits down with lots of paper, to write stories of a whole new world. The place is called Earth.

June learns that she is a Writer, with the ability to Write an entire world into existence. On Earth, June meets a young artist named Jackson. He has a hard time believing her story; he has an even harder time believing that he has related "abilities" of his own. As a Writer, the intention is that June create a Writer for Earth, someone who, out of frustration and boredom, will Write a whole new world into being.

Meantime, Vivien is the Master Writer. Her son, Victor, is a manipulative little you-know-what who thinks that he 'deserves' to be the next Master Writer. He also desperately wants to be reWritten (reborn). It is used only in cases of extreme emergency. In her Will, Vivien makes June the next Master Writer, and practically begs her to never, ever reWrite Victor. She is afraid that it will magnify his negative qualities (of which he has many). When told that the answer is No, Victor does not take it well. He spends weeks and weeks plotting the 'perfect' way to force June to reWrite him. Does it work? Does Earth get unWritten out of existence (always a possibility)?

This one is surprisingly good. The author does a fine job from start to finish. She is only 16 years old(!), but writes like someone older. Young people will love this book; it's well worth reading for adults, too.
Paul Lappen (30th September 2013)