Review: `Get it out of me! Get it out! Please... I don't want it in me.'
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2014
Brazilian author Eleanor T. Beaty brings to her writing the sense of magical realism so often associated with South American art and literature. Born in Brazil but having lived in the United States, Switzerland and Argentina, she has witnessed several cultures that she successfully weaves into her novels. Having gained her degree in English Literature she now devotes her time to her chosen specialty - Young Adult Paranormal stories - from her home in Brazil. Spirituality and magic concepts come easily to her: `All my books hold those two themes. Spirits, afterlife and the amazing coincidences, which are anything but. I believe that everything has a reason and understanding those reasons help us deal with the difficult moments.'Reading Beaty's prose reveals a special affinity for the Young Adult mind. She is able to create extraordinary situations within the context and language of the tone of the times. For those who have read Beaty's other books (this reviewer has had the pleasure of reading only one to date VEILED MIST) the intensity of her fantasy creations will not be a surprise, yet the open of FALLEN RULER in a birthing room in India as a suicidal woman gives birth to a baby assisted by a blue girl who transforms into a monk is so startlingly realistic and eloquently written that by the end of that chapter the reader is glue to the story that follows.  The delivered baby from chapter one, Lya, is `unwanted' by her family, and though we suspect she is anything close to human she lives a rather normal human existence until her father's life style results being involved with questionable people and Lya's sister is kidnapped and Lya and her father are transported to India where upon departing the airplane Lya is rescued from the evil men who have captured Lya and her father - her rescuers are monks who transport her to a monastery where Lya finally discovers her origins and the identity of the rescuing monks and  must face that face that she is descend from another planet...and to say more in a summary would tarnish the impact of reading this book on your own. Secrets, mysteries, passion, romance, Eastern philosophical keys abound - all in fine Beaty fashion and dotted with enough dark humor to provide relief.  Another fine novel from Eleanor T. Beaty. Grady Harp, May 14