Faith McDaniels is smart, defiant, and a loner in a new high school, rebelling against a cruel world that took her mother too-soon. When Faith unexpectedly discovers the secret symbiotic world of Enlitra, it looks like the universe still has a surprise or two. But her newfound abilities to bend & shape energy (EN) gain the interest of an unnamed, energy-siphoning fiend, who wants to harvest Faith’s power to destroy both Earth and Enlitra.
Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Reedsy Discovery

Plot

With the promise of a fast-paced, Avatar: The Last Airbender-esque story, I was really excited to start reading EN. I sometimes struggle to enjoy portal fantasies, however, as the jumping between worlds sometimes results in a slower paced story, especially in sections that take place at “home” instead of the “new world”. While I did love the concept of the book and stayed interested in the antagonist the conflict until the end, unfortunately, this book was not an exception to other portal fantasies I’ve struggled with. The main character’s personal life dominated the scenes in which I was hoping to see more magic and action. This was especially true for the climax of the book, which had more dialogue between Faith and her friends than I would expect for an action-filled moment.

Characters

Faith, as a main character, was fun. She is a pretty typical teenage girl who is dealing with some difficult things at the beginning of the book. I felt she was portrayed realistically and probably reacted in a way most of us would when faced with her new powers and responsibilities. However, the secondary characters didn’t feel as fleshed-out and interesting. Many of the them, including Faith’s brother and best friend, felt more like cliched tropes than characters I could fully connect to. Near the end of the book, the cast felt pretty full for a plot of this length, but those characters may become useful in the following books in the series.

Setting

The world of Enlitra and the magic system, which involves reusing energy to create new things, was my favorite part of the book. The world and people of Enlitra were different than anything I’ve read before. The magic was very complex, both for me as a reader to understand and for the protagonist, but I enjoyed seeing the character’s development in using the magic near the end of the book. I wish more time had been spent in Enlitra, rather than the “real” world, as the “real” world seemed more ambiguous and lacking detail despite spending the large majority of the book there.

My Recommendation

This book is a quick and easy read that fans of other portal fantasies will love. The book does spend most of it’s time in the “real” world as opposed to the fantasy world of Enlitra and the majority of the scenes focus on Faith’s personal drama with family and friends, rather than on her magic. So if you’re looking for a character-driven drama with elements of magic, this would be the perfect book for you! While I’ve seen it compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender, I didn’t see the resemblance between the show and this book.

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