Mike's Review of Wren by Regina O'Connell

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Superb Fantasy Adventure

I loved this story! Regina O’Connell places you in a future world where society has devolved back to something that feels somewhat medieval, and the rules are…well, the rules are different than anything I’ve ever seen. Families don’t consist of a mother, a father, and all of their children. I’m hoping this is a nod to the progress we’ve made in our own society’s idea of what a family is and the rich diversity that accompanies the progress we’ve made. In any event, daughters live with mothers and grandmothers, sons live with fathers and grandfathers, and none of them live together or ever see each other after their coupling. In fact, men and women who work together to parent a child live in different towns entirely. Each town is ruled by a priest. This isn’t a religious thing, more like a Mayor with supreme power over everything. Adding all of this together, Ms. O’Connell has definitely created a world that is unique and very interesting.

All of that being said, my absolute favorite aspect of Wren’s world, is how Ms. O’Connell handles magic. The magic is captured in songs, and songs sung by powerful witches have real power. These songs wield so much power that most songs are deemed illegal. In fact, the only songs acceptable to sing are those found in a book of songs. I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, so I’ll let Ms. O’Connell’s own spectacular narrative voice explain how all of this came to be and where the story leads.

Before wrapping this up, I have to touch on Ms. Connell’s narrative voice. We see the story through Wren’s eyes. There is an innocence in the narration that you would expect in a story told from a child’s point of view. This was completely enjoyable. For me, this innocence added to the drama. There are a couple of somewhat dark themes that are both enthralling and unsettling in the way Wren describes them.
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I highly recommend this book. This is an enchanting fantasy with magic, action, and a wonderful contrast between light and dark themes. I can’t wait to read the next book!