Blue Rabbit, a YA portal fantasy by Jimena I. Novaro, chronicles the adventures of five teenagers who cross over into an alien world from Knoxville, TN. Their crossing comes with consequences, and the five suddenly find themselves struggling to save both worlds while keeping themselves alive.
I have a preference to certain plots: disparate people come together to take on a mission, a portal to another world, an element of realistic danger, and rules that don’t follow Earth’s laws but make sense. Blue Rabbit checks all of these boxes. I really enjoyed that it starts in the middle of the story, enhancing the mystery. The book begins with the five teenagers already in trouble because of their discovery of this new world. It provides little backstory into how they found the portal, what they first experienced there, and what they did when they went home. The stakes start high and grow through the novel.
The diverse characters are unique from the beginning. You find each one’s voice fairly quickly and a foray to the other world early in the book focuses the reader on three of the five characters. The eldritch world on the other side of the portal is an extreme setting. The sky is difficult to see, seasons are inexistent, creatures indiscernible, and Earth weapons don’t work as advertised. The creatures that live in this world are both threatening and relatable. It is one creepy place.
The three teenagers who travel to the other world kidnap a creature to ransom for one of their own. Things go downhill from there but not for the reason you think. The creature is an endearing character, certainly a sixth to the group of five friends, and one of the friends is left behind to learn what is really going on between the worlds. As she finds out, both worlds are in danger of destruction.
Events escalate from this point. The novel moves along at a brisk pace with short interludes detailing character moments from the teenagers’ past lives. While this is a YA novel, I found it to be near the upper end of YA, much closer to a New Adult novel. The narrative introduces adult themes I’m not accustomed to reading in YA novels. The characters move along their different paths to a conclusion that is both satisfying but also a little abrupt. While I would’ve preferred the climax to draw out a little longer, the character arcs are resolved satisfactorily.
Blue Rabbit includes some really nice depictions of the landscape. “All the trees around them looked to be made of some viscous fluid that had come to a boil and frozen at the exact point where all the bubbles formed.” And “…she could hear the muffled tinkling of the leaves and branches, more like wind chimes than living plants.” And I won’t quote the passages about the bizarre stream one of the characters encounters but it’s wonderful. From little details like using plastic silverware to acting out Lord of the Rings to how different two characters react to their sudden encounter with death is a treat.
A fine novel, far better than most of the YA novels I see on bookshelves today, pick up Blue Rabbit if you like It by Stephen King or The Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire. Personally, I liked this better than the Wayward Children series and look forward to reading more by Ms. Novaro in the future.