Heather MackeyCritiques

Look, I won't even deny that the cover of this is what made me pick it up. Heather Mackey's Dreamwood called to me. It lured me in with promises of danger and adventure. Books like this are my favorite, because they remind me why I fell in love with Fantasy as a child. I never fail to feel giddy at the prospect of entering a new world. Truth be told, I couldn't have resisted this book even if I'd actually tried.

Lucy Darrington is an interesting character. At the start of book, she appeared to be completely in control of her situation. Running away from boarding school is something that most young girls wouldn't dare to do, but Lucy isn't most girls. I loved her keen interest in the world around her, and the no-nonsense way that she approached every situation. For Lucy, it's all about the facts. That's how you get things done.

As for the story itself, I'll admit that it was a little slow at some points. However I do believe that that slower points were worth working through. Once Lucy and Pete entered The Devil's Thumb, and they were well on their way to finding Lucy's father, things picked up nicely. The part of me that had wanted to skip ahead was glad that I didn't, because the change in pace was exciting. I love when authors aren't afraid of the truth of adventures, despite the age they write for. There are deaths in this book. They aren't gory, and they aren't violent, but they're there nonetheless. The forest is an unforgiving place most times.

I was wavering between giving this three and four stars, but ultimately I think that I've settled on three. The ending to this just wrapped up too perfectly for my taste. While I completely understand this is aimed a much younger readers than myself, I still believe the ending was too formulaic. After everything that Lucy had been through, the happily ever after just seemed trite. Maybe when I was younger I would have loved it! Who knows? I was a reader of Grimm's Fairy Tales, so perhaps I'm just used to things being tied up a little less beautifully.

An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my thoughts in any way.
I thought this was a well written story and I really liked the idea behind it. I didn't really connect to the characters but I was interested in what was happening to them.½

First off, I want to say that the cover art for this book is quite beautiful, and that was as much of a draw to me as the book description. I got this in audiobook format, and while the narration is perfectly serviceable I continue to have difficulty connecting with the characters and keeping all the story elements straight in my head. I will keep trying, but this may be one of those books that I just need to read in print before I can really enjoy the audio. I do note that other reviewers have also had difficulty with focusing on the narration, so it does sound like it isn't just me.

I received this as an audio book for Early Reviewers. I was hoping to listen to it on the way to the beach with my family. We tried numerous times to engage with the story but could not seem to become invested in it. I am not sure if this is a reflection of the story of the narration. I would like to try reading a paper copy and see if that is more enjoyable.

In an alternate late 19th century, twelve-year-old Lucy Darrington flees a San Francisco finishing school and heads to the fictional Saarthe, an alternate Pacific Northwest where logging is the major industry within lands still owned by indigenous peoples. She steps off the train in Pentland, hoping to reunite with her father, a ghostologist whose work on the East Coast has diminished as the result of a scandal. Instead of a happy reunion, Lucy finds her father is missing and the region is filled with tension as loggers battle a plague, called Rust, killing the enormous kodok trees and thus threatening the primary source of income for settlers and First Peoples alike.

A mysterious old man tells Lucy that only the mythical and elusive Dreamwood—a tree out of legend—can heal the Rust plague. Sure her father was looking for the truth about Dreamwood, Lucy sets out to find him and immediately faces a perilous reality: Dreamwood exists (if at all) in the Devil’s Thumb, a peninsula suffused with mystery and magic, and from whose wooded shores few ever return.

Accompanied by Pete Knightly, who hopes to find a cure for Rust that will help his own deeply indebted family, and a Native American girl, Niwa, Lucy reaches the Devil’s Thumb. Here she and Pete face their own weaknesses, an environment hostile to humanity’s arrogant carelessness, a group of unscrupulous men also searching for Dreamwood, and His-sey-ak, the nature spirit who haunts the forest.

Clever, courageous, pragmatic, headstrong, and arrogant, Lucy yearns for friendship even as she is often careless of its demands. She is likeable, a character easy to root for, even though Mackey occasionally allows Lucy to stray into cliché: For example, although Lucy is warned that death awaits those who dare take anything from the forest on the Devil’s Thumb, she quickly yields to temptation, as does Pete. Could Mackey not think of anything less signaled and predictable to prove her main characters are prone to human frailties? This incident, along with one or two others, detract from an otherwise suspenseful climb to the story’s climax, which itself feels rushed, as if Mackey was running out of inventive steam.

Mackey does not excel at detailed, satisfyingly grounded world building. Instead she relies on broad and unsatisfying explanations of this alternate history, in which added (and thoughtful) details would have been welcome. Pentland, for example, is presented as the barest sketch, as is the topography of the Pacific Northwest, whose its dramatic mountains and volcanoes, mists and infrequent blue skies cry out for better exposition. And the mysterious old man Lucy encounters in the woods near Pentland? He is painted sketchily and exists, all too obviously, as a means to push Lucy in the direction of Dreamwood and the Devil’s Thumb; if mentors are going to be featured in a story, they deserve better treatment.

More pleasing is Mackey’s portrayal of the Lupines, a fictional Native American nation whose members understand the uses and dangers of the magic that suffuses the region and who—a refreshing plot point—have retained control of most of their ancestral lands. While I would have loved more participation in this story of Niwa and her people, the inclusion of the Lupines adds to the inventiveness of this alternate history.

Lucy’s quest contains enough that is creative that most readers will forgive the plot holes, thin secondary characters, and clichéd plot points to enjoy this supernaturally-tinged adventure/mystery. Recommended.

Dreamwood is more of a 3.5 star read rather than just 3 stars, because of the writing and the world building. Lucy runs away from an exclusive all girls boarding school because she doesn't fit in to the mold of a quiet, dainty young lady. She prefers adventure and acquiring useful knowledge to being quiet and unassuming. Lucy travels to the Pacific Northwest in search of her father who is an inventor as well as a paranormal investigator. When she arrives she learns that her father has gone in search of a cure for rust which is killing all the trees. His journey has taken him to the Thumb, a wild and dangerous place from which few return. Determined to reunite with her father she makes the perilous journey to the thumb with her friend Pete in tow. The two face numerous obstacles and harrowing events to find the Rust cure and to see if they can rescue Lucy's father. I enjoyed the book but didn't rate it higher because the characters were overly simplistic and didn't have much depth. Also, the conclusion seemed rushed and not fully fleshed out. That being said the author does have talent and I would definitely read other books that she writes. Interesting concept, good writing but the execution could have been better½

I tried to listen to this a couple of times, but found the reader to not very engaging, I'm sorry to say.

Lucy Darrington has no choice but to run away from boarding school. Her father, an expert on the supernatural, has been away for too long while doing research in Saarthe, a remote territory in the Pacific Northwest populated by towering redwoods, timber barons, and the Lupine people. But upon arriving, she learns her father is missing: Rumor has it he’s gone in search of dreamwood, a rare tree with magical properties that just might hold the cure for the blight that’s ravaging the forests of Saarthe.

Determined to find her father (and possibly save Saarthe), Lucy and her vexingly stubborn friend Pete follow William Darrington’s trail to the deadly woods on Devil’s Thumb. As they encounter Lupine princesses, giant sea serpents, and all manner of terrifying creatures, Lucy hasn’t reckoned that the dreamwood itself might be the greatest threat of all.

Lucy Darrington is in search of her father after arriving at home to find that he had left on an elaborate and dangerous quest to cure a rot that was taking over all trees. Knowing very litte about where he went and why, Lucy must piece together notes he left behind, information from the townspeople, and use her logic to find where he is and how to get him home safely.

As much as this plot line was wonderful and seems like it would be a thrilling book to listen to or read - it was a bit slow-going. Lucy was a bit of a know-it-all throughout the story and the tale itself dragged on, I felt mostly annoyed which Lucy as the main character and on top of that I found myself actively listening to other things so I wouldn't have to sit and listen to more of the book.

I am not saying that it was a bad book, it was just SUPER slow and so every time I started listening to it I found myself zoning-out and not paying attention for ling periods of time or just not caring about the plot at all. On top of that in the latter half of the book, there was a lot of violence and murdering and for a book categorized as Middle Grade, I found it to be a bit graphic and over the top - for instance impaling a man with tree branches (If I had been a kid reading this I would become petrified of trees! - Maybe I am not the best example since I have crazy fears of things, but still!).

What I did like about this book was that it was creative. There was a creepy forest and the magic of it all was well done. The author did a good job explaining how the island/ forest operated and why - through Lucy and her father. Also there was a good a mount of suspense in the final few discs of the audiobook to keep a reader on their toes. Not the best book I have listened to, but also nowhere near the worst.

Dreamwood by Heather Mackey journeys from a myth to a reality with death always fingertips away.

Lucy Darrington hates her boarding school, so she simply leaves. One thing about Lucy is that she doesn't like to be told what to do. She considers herself brave and independent. Therefore, she catches a train to find her father, the ghostologist, a field that is no longer in need. Now that electricity is becoming fairly common, ghosts are no longer a nuisance and few need them chased away. Lucy's father has little to do besides his research and wants Lucy to grow up with more opportunities and not be saddled with him. Lucy cares nothing for societal standards and knows that her father will be lost without her.

Lucy arrives in the northwest Pacific, an area known as Saarthe. Her father has been researching the Dreamwood and the rust that is killing the trees. Lucy knows that her father has traveled to the Thumb, an area that no one has returned from except one person who had gone crazy. Determined, Lucy sets out to find her father, but Pete decides to tag along. Lucy feels he is a nuisance and doesn't know what he's doing. As they encounter terrifying and strange creatures, Lucy quickly discovers that she would die without Pete. She returns her thanks by saving him as well. Their journey through the Thumb takes courage, but Lucy is determined to find her father.

This is a very nice fantasy novel. Lucy is quite self-centered and egotistic, but she is very smart about ghosts. Pete knows how to camp and survive in the woods. Their skills and their growing attachment to each other makes the novel interesting and fun to read.½

A fairly straightforward fantasy about a young girl named Lucy who has escaped from her boarding school to search for her father, who works as a ghost hunter. Our story takes place in the Pacific northwest near the turn of the 20th century. Lucy befriends a boy who lives in the town, and together they journey to a dangerous island with all kinds of terrifying legends attached to it, from evil spirits to carnivorous fauna. It was a decent adventure, but it didn't leave much of an impression on me.

Good middle grade fantasy book - the plot is a little muddled in the beginning, and I have to admit to having some trouble keeping some of the characters straight (I was listening to the book in my car). Lucy belongs to the tradition of independent, spunky young women who rebel against societal norms - nothing new there, but well-drawn all the same.

Notes on the audio edition: I wasn't very keen on the narrator. Something about her voice was droning, and I often felt my attention waning away. I took some time in finishing this book, because I kept turning it off in favor of the radio because I knew I wasn't paying close enough attention.

Lucy lives in an enchanted land where ghosts dwell and trees can heal. When her father goes missing on a quest to the save people from a terrible fate, she and her friend Pete go on a dangerous journey through an uncharted forest in an attempt to finish his quest and in hope that perhaps they will save him too. I enjoyed the reader's interpretation of the cast of characters and her tone was pleasant. Great story for ages 8-12 or families on a road trip.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm really starting to enjoy having audiobooks of some of these so I can listen to them in the car. I would love to go back and actually read it though.

This book is a fun, intelligent, adventurous read. The heroine, Lucy, is a spunky young girl in search of her scientist/inventor father on the dangerous "Devil's Thumb" amid the Saarthe territory in the Pacific Northwest. Lucy encounters mythical beings along the way with her willful sidekick Peter. I especially loved hearing Jennifer Grace's perfectly cued narration of Lucy's logical, rational, scientific thoughts throughout this story and Heather Mackey's rich, vivid descriptions of the physical environment. The result is a magical world that feels detailed and real with a fast-paced adventure that many middle school boys and girls alike will love. Also, the cover is gorgeous!

"12-year-old Lucy Darrington goes on a quest to find her missing father in a remote, magical territory in the Pacific Northwest"-- Provided by publisher.