Book Review--Auralia's Colors by Jeffery Overstreet

When thieves find an abandoned child lying in a monster’s footprint, they have no idea that their wilderness discovery will change the course of history. 

Cloaked in mystery, Auralia grows up among criminals outside the walls of House Abascar, where vicious beastmen lurk in shadow. There, she discovers an unsettling–and forbidden–talent for crafting colors that enchant all who behold them, including Abascar’s hard-hearted king, an exiled wizard, and a prince who keeps dangerous secrets.

Auralia’s gift opens doors from the palace to the dungeons, setting the stage for violent and miraculous change in the great houses of the Expanse.

Auralia’s Colors weaves literary fantasy together with poetic prose, a suspenseful plot, adrenaline-rush action, and unpredictable characters sure to enthrall ambitious imaginations.

-Cover and Book Summary Taken from Amazon.com-

Through My Window

Auralia's Colors is the first book in the series by Jeffery Overstreet. It is called the Red Thread and it begins the tapestry beautifully. Overstreet's voice is unique and lovely, shrouded with a mysterious air that weaves throughout the entire novel. The engimatic quality keeps you a cetain distance from all the characters as you try to guess their motives and what they have done or will do. 

No one is more mysterious than Auralia herself. She is found by the thieves called the Gatherers and raised among them, but no one knows where she came from. Auralia does--but she's forgotten. She can't remember a lot of things, but she does know her name. With a sweet heart and a free spirit she watches over her chosen people with love, little caring that the rest of the kingdom despises them. When one person asks if she feels safe among such liars and thieves, she replies, "Never met nobody who wasn't a thief or a liar once in a while. The Gatherers are just the folks who got caught." But there is more to Auralia then just her uncanny personality--she has a gift, a beautiful one, a dangerous one.

In the land she lives, color has been outlawed for common folk through the selfish act of a queen. But Auralia can make color. But as she says, " I don't make them....I didn't make nothin' that's new...nobody owns colors. Can't you see? They're free. They're what the trees do. They're what water and sky do. Fields. Hills. Mountains. No matter how much you give them away, there'll always be more." It's a beautiful reminder that our own gifts--writing, drawing, singing--are not our own. They are what they are called--gifts.
 Surprisingly enough, the story is not really about Auralia. Rather it is the story of the people she affects, the corrupted House of Abascar and all its dark secrets. Auralia has come to remind them who they came from, what they have done, and how they might return again. But if they reject her colors, they will have to pay the consequences.

Violence Content--A few battle scenes, and a brief visit, history, and example in a torture chamber.

Sexual Content--Some flirtion and obvious suggestion of immoral interaction between two minor characters, but it obviously a sin...with retribution.

Language Content--None that I remember.

Spiritual Content--A Christian worldview with beautiful symbolism that portrays the truth of another world, a greater purpose, without scaring the non-believer away. The only thing I had a problem with, was while I loved the symbolic nature of the representation of God in this story, his physical manifestation was so bizarre, I was a bit turned off.

~ 4/5  Stars ~

I liked this book. I did not love it, but I liked it. The enigmatic style made me feel like the entire novel was a prologue, and that, coupled with the sorrowful, thought-provoking, but hopeful conclusion, bids me to go on in the series and learn more about the surviving characters. If you are a writer, the writing style of this story itself makes it a worthy read to learn from.