TITLE: Brigitta of the White Forest
AUTHOR: Danika Dinsmore
PUBLISHER: en theos press
RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2011
WEBSITE: http://whiteforesttales.wordpress.com/

PAGES: 208
ISBN: 0975404296
PRICE: $12.95 (pb)

There are many ways Danika Dinsmore’s debut novel, Brigitta of the White Forest, could go wrong. As a concept, a young adult novel about a world almost entirely populated with fairies by a debut author is something I would hesitate to pick up. Yet I found myself quickly charmed by her characters and setting for what proved to be a wonderful read. Dinsmore weaves a coming of age story through a world that is both fantastic and believable.

Brigitta and her younger sister, Himalette, live in the enchanted and protected realm of the White Forest. Each season cycle the Elders must perform the ritual that restores the Hourglass of Protection that keeps intruders out of their peaceful land. Before the ritual can be performed, a magical attack incapacitates everyone except for the two sisters. Desperate to save the White Forest before the sands in the Hourglass run out, Brigitta and Himalette must leave the forest and seek help from the only fairy that may have a way to fix things: Hrathgar, the dark fairy that lives in exile after trying to take over the White Forest.

The world of the White Forest is a place full of wonder: fairies, sprites, satyrs, talking plants, talking animals and tree people. It would have been easy for this to slip into being a saccharine-sweet tale with two-dimensional characters and a shallow plot. But it proved to be the opposite case as the core of the story focuses more on very believable and well developed struggles of Brigitta.

Brigitta starts the story at the edge of growing up, with all the awkwardness that comes with it. Her peers have all taken on the wing-markings that show what career they are destined for, while Brigitta’s wings are still bare as she struggles to find her place in the world. She feels awkward around her parents and frustrated with being responsible for her careless little sister. When she’s pushed into the position of trying to save the White Forest, she is forced into threats and difficult choices that she feels unprepared to solve.

The plot proved very rich, as she had reasons to distrust everyone that she needed to rely on for help. In addition to the physical threats that got in her way, she had to piece together the clues of events that took place centuries before she was born in order to learn who she could trust. Through all of this, the characters grow and evolve in a very believable way.

This is not to say the book is without its weaker moments. Some of the writing is a little rough at times. I read through the entire book without having a strong sense of scale when it came to the size of the fairies and other creatures around them. And the entire book is filled with plants and animals that don’t exist in real world mythology, requiring there to be a glossary at the back. It made some of the reading a little difficult, as I got dumped out of the narrative and had to flip back to look something up.

But more than anything, the book captured my imagination. It took me back to my early teens, when I gobbled up books like Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain or the Dragonlance novels. This felt like a very strong book that could appeal to readers of all ages.