Riven

My Myth Trilogy Volume 1

Young Adult - Mythology/Fairy Tale
325 Pages
Reviewed on 04/22/2018
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Ms. Harris has a Humanities degree from Brigham Young University with emphases in Art History, Italian Language, and Studio Art. She's crazy about the visual and performing arts!

But her real passion is people. She loves to watch and study what makes us tick as human beings. Jane is definitely a dreamer. Her favorite thing to do is weave together sublime settings and stories for characters to live and learn in...herself included. She hopes to promote the message that victims of abuse can do more than just survive. They can THRIVE.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Trisha Dawn for Readers' Favorite

Emily has been in charge of her siblings Aidan, Jacob and Claire ever since their mom got sick and decided to stay in her room indefinitely. Although Emily seems to have things under control in their household, there are aspects in her life which she does not: repeating junior year soon, friendships falling apart and her dad coming home from prison after years of incarceration. In addition to all of this, she woke up one morning to find festering weird cuts on her arms, which she had no idea how she got in the first place. Gabe, her new friend, has been trying to shower her with care and support, but more and more things are unraveling. Refusing to face her cruel past and her depressing present, she turns to medicine and fairy tales. In Riven: My Myth Trilogy Volume 1 by Jane Alvey Harris, Emily’s reality starts overlapping, little by little, with her seventh kingdom fantasy of faes and elves until the latter becomes her truth. Such is the story of Riven.

This novel is a beautifully written masterpiece. The hard truth of serious issues going hand in hand with the comforting escape a fantasy world can offer has been a reality among many victims of abuse, but has never been written down as accurately as in Riven. Author Jane Alvey Harris’ empathy towards victims is the underlying factor of this story. It has made the story relatable, even to someone like me who has not experienced abuse. The way she wrote it tugs at a few issues we have with ourselves, like our refusal to see problems as they are or our denial of the bad things that broke our hearts at one point. There were a lot of dark and sensitive parts, but they were written with caution. The end product is that these parts don’t seem vulgar at all. As for the characters, they are great representations. Emily or Emma is an embodiment of those people who really had it rough in their lives. Her family and relatives have done what anyone would do. Meanwhile, bad people are everywhere and they can even be at a close proximity to us. Riven is eye opening. The way it is written will help people understand how abuse changes a person. It’s definitely a must-read.

Patricia Bell

Riven by Jane Alvey Harris, the first volume in the My Myth series, is a fantastic story about Emily, a seventeen-year-old girl who is burdened with the responsibility of taking care of her younger siblings. With her father in prison and her mother strung out on drugs, she has stepped up to do what no teenager should have to do. But Emily has secrets. Voices that speak to her in her head, an addiction to sleep medication, and a secret fantasy world that holds her captive at the most inopportune of times. Not to mention the strange markings that have somehow been carved into her arm. And with her father getting out of jail soon, Emily fears for herself and her siblings. There are things in her past that she has kept hidden, even from herself. Very bad things. She must do what she can to protect herself and her siblings from the evil that exists to consume her.

All I can say about this book is – Wow! Jane Alvey Harris has a way with words that can plunge your mind into darkness, spin you around and turn you upside down. I had no idea what was real and what was fantasy. Riven was a deep story, the immensity of it is almost unbearable. There was not a moment I was not completely enthralled in this story. It made me laugh, and cry and every emotion in between. This is not your typical fantasy. This is a story about a girl whose pain is so harsh that she has reverted to a fantasy in order to keep her sanity. Much applause, Jane! And I am still not sure what is real and what is not. I look forward the next installment of this story.

Kathryn Bennett

In Riven (My Myth Trilogy Volume 1) by Jane Alvey Harris, if someone gave you the chance to choose between more than one reality, do you know which one you would choose? Young Emily has a life where one parent is strung out on pain medication and the other is serving a long term prison sentence for fraud. This forced Emily to grow up fast, help with her siblings and keep things going. This is something she does until the voices begin. This starts her retreat into the fantasy world she used to be in as a child, where she looks for help from the fae. It is a very real world to her and could be better than the one in which she is living now, or worse. Which one would you choose?

I love a good fantasy novel and when I saw that this one was about a girl who heard voices and had two different realities, I knew I had to read it. This is such a different take for me on fantasy that I knew I would like to see the difference. I'm so glad I followed that instinct because this book is beautifully written. You can tell that the author has a deft hand at creating worlds that are intriguing and characters that are engaging. I might not have had some of the issues that Emily does with things, but I can understand how she has to grow up and find different ways to cope. My childhood had its moments and I had to grow up too fast as well, though I can only wish I'd had some fae to help me get through things as well. I don't want to give away too many twists because you need to read this book and enjoy it yourself. But Emily certainly comes up against many things and goes on an adventure that is hard to believe ... and yet you want to follow along with her on it. This is volume 1 and I am looking forward to reading more by Jane Alvey Harris.