The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons

The quick cut: An 18 year old girl who lives in a lighthouse with her father desires to see the mainland when an injured man arrives on their island. Chaos ensues when she gets her wish and it isn't what she expected.

A real review:

Thank you to Abbie Emmons for providing the arc for an honest review.

For some, the perfect life is filled to the brim with people and vibrant activity. For others, it's isolation and solitude. If you only ever knew solitude your entire life, would you be curious what the rest of the world is like? For newly 18 Orca, it's all she's ever wanted to learn about.

Orca has spent her entire life living with her dad on their small island, caring for the lighthouse they live in. Now that she's 18 and an adult, all she wants to do is go to the mainland and experience what life is like there. When her dad vehemently denies her request and goes to the mainland for a business meeting, she saves a man who crashed his plane and washed ashore on their island. Is this the beginning of her mainland journey? Or the end of her life as she knows it?

This book is filled to the brim with emotion and questions. Every person in this story goes on a deep and meaningful journey, better understanding what they want their life to be in the end. It's intense and powerful if that's the experience you want out of this book. For a casual reader, it's likely to be too overwhelming of content.

Orca grew up in isolation and in many ways is very naive to the world. She knows what she wants though and is so educated, she also in many ways is wise beyond her years. Seeing her experience the world for the first time and understand the unique childhood experience she had makes her better appreciate what she has with her father. Watching her also realize the hard truth her dad his from her is heartbreaking though. I would've fallen apart in her shoes at that age.

The other lead characters are brothers Jack and Adam. Orca saves Adam's life on the island and their time together alone bonds them in a different way. Like this book, they quickly get deep and understand what the others deepest desires are. Jack, meanwhile is the younger brother who begs Orca to find his brother Adam. He's like Orca in the way that he desires adventure and freedom and to experience life on his terms.

These two both go on a journey of love. They both fall for Orca, but each experiences it in a different way. One finds a life partner, the other learns what it looks like to have a true friend. I don't want to reveal which is which, but both end up irrevocably changed. It's an experience that forever changes them.

A powerful emotional story not for the faint of heart.

My rating: 4.25 out of 5