Alice Will: Dreams of Chaos Book 1 by Ashley Chappell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The world in on the verge of war. The Gods are all set to fight against each other. A young demi-God, Trotter, who does not know her lineage and powers, finds herself in the middle of this epic battle, and before she realizes, the onus is on her to save the world.
There is the realm, the world of Gods and there is Aevum, the common world. There is a wedge, which connects these two worlds together. Gods are not supposed to cross the wedge and meddle in the life of humans, as per the signed Accord. But one demi-God, Alice breaches this accord by unknowingly tapping into her powers and alters the course of the world. This wakes up all the dormant Gods, both good and evil. Evil tries to reach out to Alice to change the course of events further and bring back the God of war, who had been tricked and trapped by the other Gods to maintain peace in the world. Now the good Gods reach out to fourteen-year-old- Trotter, to use her powers to stop Alice and the evil Gods, who are all set to seek their vengeance and destroy the world.
This is a typical fantasy young adult plot, but every book varies based on how the author constructs her plot and pours her imagination into the characters and the settings. I really liked the fantasy element in this book and how all the mythical creatures are described. The talking cat, the watching Falcon, the grotesque mermaids, and dangerous demons. There is the Canvas which holds the memories of one and all, a backdrop on which everyone can paint their own memories. So, the Gods who have access to this Canvas, can go back and forth and change the course of the World. All they have to do is to fiddle with a memory of someone, which can trigger a whole new set of actions. I loved this concept and the imagination is brilliant.
But I did feel a disconnect with the characters themselves, I felt they did not grow on me as much as I expected them to, at the beginning of the book. The destination matters and so does the journey. The relationships Trotter or Alice forge in their journey, do not seem deep as there is a constant rush to reach the end. Considering that the book is just about more than 300 pages, it falls trifle short to capture the huge appetite of the author. Too much happens in a very short span of time, and before you realize, you are at the climax. I felt there was not much need to tie up all the loose ends in this book. The author should have let somethings be, to be taken on in the subsequent books of the series. In the books of a similar genre, like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson or His Dark Materials, the loose ends are not tied till the very end of the series. Leaving this apart, the book is a very enjoyable read.
To summarize, a brilliant piece of work which triggers the reader’s imagination. I am very curious to read the second book, to see where this magical world leads to.

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