ARA Review by Raja YASWANTH of Herai

[Raja YASWANTH]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Herai.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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HERAI is an intricately drawn dystopian tale featuring two different realities/parallel universes: “without” and “a better place.” An all-powerful being watches these two worlds unfold. Herai, daughter of the city’s ruler, is attacked and nearly killed in one parallel universe. In the other one, she isn’t. The characters live in an underground community with caves and torches. The descriptions and world building are exceptionally well done. This novel is well edited and it’s clear a lot of thought went into the detailed plotting of this dual-universe novel.

In “Without” Monta is from the outside. Glant, Herai’s father and leader of the city, shares the dystopian story of savages, the world being poisoned, and retreating into the city. Herai goes with Monta to meet with the savages and try to end the war. But Glant can’t be trusted—he’s already betrayed Monta before, and now is after Herai. I especially enjoyed the first scene with Herai and Endam. Perhaps all she has been told is not entirely true… The Better Place: In this version, Herai has been brutally attacked and the characters are trying to solve the mystery of who could have attacked her.

I really loved the amount of detail the author put into the story. The caves and intricacies of the underground world were well thought out and vividly described. I struggled somewhat with the split-universe format, which switched off in each chapter, because although the writing was sound, I was having a bit of trouble keeping the details of the story straight and remembering which plot points belonged in which universe. I’d recommend this book to readers who like interesting dystopian novels with a twist!

4/5

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