SUMMARY:
Before Anathema...
Before Sleepers...
There was The Initiate

Over a thousand years ago, the gods left Eloh's people and took their magic with them. To win back their favor, her people sacrifice ten female initiates every ten years. No has ever survived. There has never been a Chosen One.

Forced into becoming an initiate, Eloh will try to find a way to beat the odds, stay with her boyfriend, and survive the fires that threaten to consume her. But will her lack of faith in the gods and her disbelief in their magic doom her to a painful death?

The Initiate is a novelette that bridges the bestselling Cloud Prophet Trilogy (Anathema, Oubliette, and Severed) and The Swarm Trilogy (Sleepers, Afterlife, and The Sundering).

Eloh is the initiate. Picked as one of 10 girls who will be sacrificed to the Gods in hope that one of them will be The Chosen One. We hang out with Eloh before she hits the stage as her makeup is applied and we learn a little bit about this strange custom, reasons for sacrificing young girls, her family and boyfriend Ben.

Short stories and novellas often have problem that there is not much place for character development. But here we get to know Eloh pretty well. Other characters feel flat compared to her, especially Ben her boyfriend (I just could not feel the love).

The story length is good, not too long or too short. There is enough information and mystery to intrigue us to learn more about this strange world and to find out what will happen next.
The writing is a little bit simple (problem with most books written for young adult audience), but again this is too short to get a real taste of what Megg Jensen is capable for. I will have to read Anathema (The Song of Eloh Saga, Book 2) before giving any final conclusion. And since it's free at Amazon (like this preques too) it will probably be soon.

I recommend this book to: fans of ya fantasy.

My Rating: 3 out of 5