AFTER HALASTAESIA

A fever dream of a story offering more questions than answers.

Sixteen-year-old Ben is growing up in small-town Pennsylvania, but he recently journeyed to a distant land. After waking from a coma following a serious accident, Ben struggles with feeling like “a nobody—just another kid in high school.” Although he was unconscious for about three months, he spent just over a year in Halastaesia, a land where he was a popular hero who “even got the girl.” His psychiatrist, however, believes that the trauma is causing “mild schizophrenic episodes” and that his memories were just coma dreams. The book’s intriguing setup falters when it comes to the central question of whether Ben truly experienced two different worlds. The story flounders without a cohesive vision driving it in a single direction and is impeded by a plot that is overly complicated and character development that relies heavily on tropes and cliches. The two central conflicts in the book—Ben’s being torn between two girls (one in this world and one in Halastaesia) and a battle between good and evil—aren’t built on firm enough foundations to be compelling and, as a result, the cliffhanger ending is more confusing than dramatic. Main characters are coded white.

An interesting premise hindered by too many subplots, underdeveloped characters, and a resolution that fizzles.