Review: A great fantasy world with a story to match
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 28, 2012
Wysteria's world is a fantasy smorgasbord, where the peoples of dozens of islands each have their own magic, heroes, villains and secrets. The women of Wysteria can communicate with and control plants, but the men cannot, and Yeager develops the potential of that state of affairs with skill, insight, and tongue-in-cheek playfulness.This story is clearly aimed at young adults, but its broad strokes of political intrigue and explorations of friendship and love would be at home in any novel.Yeager includes some elements you might have seen in other fantasy stories--a reluctant princess, a band of not-quite pirates, and competing love interests that challenge the discernment (and patience) of the aforementioned princess--but his rendering is not only original, he slyly pokes fun at the genre itself. Yeager knew what would be predictable and seemed to delight in defying those expectations, not for its own sake, but because his story lived and breathed inside of him. I appreciate that, and I also appreciate a story I can recommend to young adults without reservation for what it does not have.I give Isle of Wysteria full marks for its engaging and well conceived fantasy world, and for a story that's written well enough to allow for a little deliberate coloring outside the lines.