Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Torn
Fiction
For ages 14 and up
Unabridged audiobook (CD)
Performed/read by: Therese Plummer
Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged, 2012 ISBN: 978-1455857753
Wendy Everly always knew that she was somehow different from everyone else, but she had no idea how different. She now knows that she is a Trylle, a kind of troll, a changeling who was switched at birth and placed secretly in a human host family. For a short time, Wendy lives with her mother Elora, the queen of the Trylle people, but after another group of trolls, the Vittra, attack the queen’s palace, Wendy decides that she has had enough, and she runs away with Rhys, the human whose place she took in the Everly family. She heads for the only home she has ever known.
Wendy is not at home with Matt, her human ‘brother,’ long before the Vittra attack and take her, Rhys, and Matt to the stronghold of Oren, the Vittra King. While they wait in the Vittra dungeons, Wendy does her best to help Matt to understand what is going on.
When she at last gets to meet King Oren, Wendy finds out that Oren is her father and that Elora was once married to Oren. The couple separated when Oren’s cruel ways became too much for Elora, who fled when she was pregnant, and who did her best to make sure that Oren never found out where Wendy was. Now Oren wants Wendy back. His people are dying out and he needs Wendy to help make them a strong community again. Wendy has no fondness for her mother, but at least Elora treats her decently and does not throw her friends into dungeons.
With the help of one of Oren’s people and two Trylle friends, Wendy is able to escape, taking Matt and Rhys with her. She knows that the only place where they will be safe is in her mother’s home, so she returns to Forening, and once again become the Princess of the Trylle.
As the Trylle try to deal with their conflict with the Vittra, Wendy begins to understand that she cannot just set aside who she is. She is her mother’s heir, the future Queen, and she has to learn how to protect herself and her people from the Vittra. She has to learn how to use her magical abilities, and she also has to come to terms with the fact that sometimes doing your duty means that you have to let go of your own hopes and dreams.
In this second Trylle novel, Amanda Hocking continues the story of Wendy, the girl who finds out that she is the heir to a troll kingdom and who has to make some painful decisions about what she wants out of life. Weaving together adventure, romance, and magic, the author gives her listeners a tale that is full of surprises and unexpected twists.
Therese Plummer’s narrative perfectly captures the confusion and anxiety that Wendy experiences as she tries to understand her role in the troll world.
