To Nowhere Review: Lyris

Book: To Nowhere
Author: C. E. Wilson
Series: Standalone
POV: 1st person by Lyris, past tense
Genre: YA fantasy, paranormal

Source: author (thank you, C.E.!)
Pages: 206
Release: July 5th, 2015

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Blurb (Goodreads)
A world no one would believe.

From the moment Lyris is treated to coffee by a beautiful stranger, she has no idea that her life is about to change forever. In her enthusiasm to start at a new school with a new boyfriend, Lyris is almost able to look past his oddities.

Almost.

The way he eyes up her striking red hair.

The way he loves that she’s seventeen. “The perfect age.”

And the way he’s gone from all but begging to show her a specific room in a specific house to making her swear never to even think about it again.

When Lyris doesn't take his strange warnings seriously, she finds that nothing could have prepared her for what lay behind that door.

Suddenly, Lyris finds herself in a world no one would believe. A world where she’s only a few inches tall and giants aren’t creatures from fairy tales. Where humans are no longer the dominant race, but pets auctioned off to the highest bidder. Lyris understands the true danger of such a place, but there seems to be one person on her side.

Her kind and surprised captor.

And while Brindt appears to be sweet and trustworthy, he also straddles the line between seeing her as an equal and a cute animal.

Lyris has to get home… before the one person can turn to becomes the one person who can’t let her go. 

4.5 stars!

Wow. This book took me by surprise!

This idea is truly a unique one. I've often wondered what it would be like if the role of giants and humans were reversed, if we humans were the giants to a small, but no less inferior, species. C.E. Wilson takes this idea up and writes a fantastic book about it, exploring the possibilities.

Lyris is your average teenager who meets a boy in a coffee shop, and is immediately intrigued. But it turns out Wyatt is anything but who she expected him to be. His words are a bit cryptic, and his actions are strange. Originally, he really wanted Lyris to go check out an old abandoned house with him, and was practically begging her. But suddenly, he changes his mind, and makes her swear that she will never go in there without him. And just like any good teenager, when someone tells you not to do something, that's exactly what they're going to do. And that's how Lyris finds herself in a new world, one filled with giants, where her species are sold off like pets there.

The race of giants Lyris encounters are very similar to humans, if not identical. They have civilization, language, technology, jobs, movies, parks, and so forth. The only noticeable difference apart from them being giants are that their ears are slightly pointed, and that everyone is a vegetarian. They literally are humans, in every and all aspects. And the fact that they cage smaller beings as pets...well, Lyris hits the nail on the head when she says this: 

"Of course the same thing would happen in my world if we suddenly discovered a race only a few inches tall. We'd call them the scientific discovery of the century and test them, pet them, and only do God knows what else."

Harsh, but very true. The giants that Lyris encounters are only doing exactly what humans would do.

I didn't like Wyatt, as his morals are a little twisted. He purposely lures people into the other world, fully knowing that he's stripping them of their former lives and family just so that he can get paid. There's a saying that money can't buy you love nor life, yet Wyatt is willing giving up other people's loves and lives for money. As Brindt says, Wyatt is betraying his own kind. It goes to show the worst of humanity, that human greed can ultimately lead to monstrous actions.

In contrast, we had Brindt, Lyris' captor. He's fifteen, and at first, Lyris was desperately trying to escape him. But we find out that he's very human, someone who sees Lyris as who she is, not as a pet. It was easy to like him, to sympathize with him. He is inherently a good guy, and tries his hardest to help Lyris.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book is the ethical questions it asks. Are we truly right to keep pets? Much like the giants, we assume that pets aren't intelligent and thus we cage them for their own protection. But just because a species is smaller doest mean they're any less intelligent or insignificant. Big questions that really gets you thinking. Also, the issue of morals vs. money comes into play as well. Brindt's family needs money desperately, and Brindt knows that if he gives up Lyris, it will help ease his family's financial problems. But to do so would be to betray Lyris, similar to what Wyatt has done, and Brindt doesn't want anything to do with Wyatt.

The ending of the book left me hanging. Did Lyris go in? I want to say yes. I might be weird in the sense that that I sort of ship Lyris and Brindt, which is why I hope she did. I think they make a good team, despite their size differences. I really want a sequel, because I really want to know what happens to them, and I want to see them work together again! All in all, a great book!