THE UNINHIBITOR

A young boy is flung into a centuries-old struggle for balance between magical beings and humans in North’s fantasy novel.

By all accounts, Abaeze is a normal 12-year-old boy. He lives in Canada with his eccentric parents, whose penchant for blasting Elvis and Chuck Berry at full volume each morning has started to wear thin. At school, most of his teachers are out-of-touch and irritating–except for Mr. Valravn, an enigmatic figure whom everyone but Abaeze finds creepy and off-putting. Things begin unraveling for Abaeze when he starts losing time and finds that the vivid dreams he’s been having are more real than he imagined. Abaeze begins to uncover the truth about his identity: He is both the biological son of Oshun, a West African deity (“She always found it odd how she could be worshipped and adored as a goddess on one island and proclaimed as a monster on another”), and the cosmic fulcrum (known as the Uninhibitor) on which the balance of the cosmos rests. Hunted by forces that seek to destroy him, Abaeze must grapple with self-doubt and a legacy of grief and cultural erasure to ensure the balance between the realms. Abaeze’s story is a fresh, contemporary take on the classic hero’s journey. North, brings a sense of global inclusivity to the narrative through the use of African, Caribbean, Indigenous, and South American deities alongside figures from Northern and Western European mythology. The story seamlessly incorporates these figures into its own unique mythos, creating a world that’s expansive and detailed, with a cast of characters that is both inspiring and relatable. Abaeze, in a refreshing change from the more problematic “chosen one” characters of recent genre fiction, represents a new generation of hero who is complicated and humble. Snippets describing world events in which human beings have destroyed themselves without the participation of malevolent deities, and a secondary storyline concerning the deaths and disappearances of children Abaeze’s age, add verisimilitude to this work of speculative fiction.

Incorporating classic fantasy and mythology, this fantasy novel refreshes the hero’s journey for a new era.