The Avia Chronicles
Synopsis:
JUST HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY?
After sixteen-year-old Emily Burns turns up murdered, Sweet Valley detectives Martinez and van Daan must pin their hopes on thirteen-year-old Daisy Young, the only living soul who could have possibly witnessed the horrifying crime. But as the story of Daisy’s life spills out, the interview transforms into something darker and more tragic than either detective is equipped to handle.
Abandoned by her mother in a poor Sweet Valley neighborhood, Daisy falls in with a troupe of street-smart teens who offer her both the family and freedom she desperately craves. Their leader is Avia, a mysterious older teen who teaches Daisy both to survive and about the importance of family loyalty.
But when tragedy strikes and sends Avia down the deadly path of revenge, Daisy must prove her loyalty in one truly unforgettable act.
This twisted coming-of-age story questions the role that family, friends, and extreme poverty play in the lives of the youngest and most vulnerable members of society.
Edition:
Paperback
Disclaimer:
I received a copy of Led Astray in return for review consideration. This does not affect my review in any way.
My Thoughts:
I know that we’re all nauseatingly familiar with the Dead Girl Trope. You may even recall that back in the Before Times, when I was still running my short-lived inaugural book blog Nice Girls Don’t Wear Cha-Cha Heels, I even posted a review of a book that covered exactly this – we are a nation obsessed with the Beautiful Dead Girl.
There’s a girl. She was a nice girl. A beautiful girl. She was a perfect angel with a body built for mild sin (she certainly isn’t voluptuous. If she were, she’d have been asking for it. No, our girl is slight. She’s fragile). Now she’s a dead girl. But not dead in a way that mars her perfect beauty. If anything, she managed to die in a way that enhances it. It highlights her perfect delicateness.
Led Astray provides us with that Beautiful Dead Girl. I have had to repeatedly check my notes to remember her name because it’s not important. Her death is a means to an end.
“The weak were always the first to die. Neither the young nor the old were ever completely safe.”
The end that she is means to is telling the sad story of Daisy – a young girl abandoned by her mother and left to fend for herself in a broken down house in a broken down neighborhood. Daisy has nothing. And then she meets Avia and her friends, and they become a sort of family to her. Except I don’t feel like the bond was really very fleshed out. We were sort of just expected to accept the bond because we were told it existed.
I wish the writing had been a little stronger. Or that the book had been longer, so the writing could have successfully brought me to a place of believing in this makeshift family.
And I wish that Emily’s death had meant something.
About the Author:
I was a teacher in public school for four years and have a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in Teaching. I started working on my first novel when I was 19, and after four years of writing and a year of searching for a publisher, I signed with TCK Publishing for a trilogy; Led Astray is my first novel, and the second in my trilogy will be released in 2019.
Rating:
Led Astray showed a lot of promise. I have to say though, that I don’t feel like it quite delivered. But, this is Voncil’s first novel, so maybe future entries in this planned trilogy will make good on it.
Led Astray The Avia Chronicles By Karlianna Voncil TKC Publishing Published: November 27, 2018 ISBN: 9781631610592 Paperback, E-book 154 Pages Author's Website
