Book Review: Akarnae by Lynette Noni

Akarnae

The Medoran Chronicles #1

Lynette Noni

Genre: YA Fantasy

With just one step, sixteen-year-old Alexandra Jennings's world changes--literally.

Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only a man named Professor Marselle can help her... but he's missing.

While waiting for him to reappear, Alex attends Akarnae Academy, Medora's boarding school for teenagers with extraordinary gifts. She soon starts to enjoy her bizarre new world and the friends who embrace her as one of their own, but strange things are happening at Akarnae, and Alex can't ignore her fear that something unexpected... something sinister... is looming.

An unwilling pawn in a deadly game, Alex's shoulders bear the crushing weight of an entire race's survival. Only she can save the Medorans, but what if doing so prevents her from ever returning home?

Will Alex risk her entire world--and maybe even her life--to save Medora?

Akarnae is everyone’s dream come true.

1. It’s in another world where the fantastical and amazing science  co-exist, which is best described by:
   

   Two in particular stood out to Alex, if only because of their contrasting forms: one was a multi-stories U-shaped complex that was almost futuristic in design, and the other was a tower-like structure in the middle of the campus that looked like it belonged in a Medieval Weekly magazine.

2. It’s a school where you get tested by sucking on a lollipop and students have… talents.
3. Gadgets, gadgets galore. From Bubbledoors that would take you to a destination instantly to TCDs which you could use to beam any food you want to eat (as long as it’s on the menu) to you.
4. Changing pictures.
5. Two-man bedrooms each with its own bathroom. The bedroom doors are touch-activated and only the owners of the bedroom could enter.
6. Medicine tastes like chocolate.
7. You get to attend really interesting classes, from playing with swords and bows and arrows to blowing stuff up in the chemistry lab. Bonus points to actually setting the room on fire.
8. Delicious cafeteria food.
9. Labyrinthine buildings with fantastic views of the extensive grounds
10. A Library that every book lover would salivate over. Actually, everyone would salivate over it because not only does it house books, books and more books, you could get into rooms where you could play hopscotch or not getting beheaded by medieval suit of armors and rooms that have entire environments and ecosystems in them.

Reading Akarnae reminded me very much of Hogwarts and fanfiction. You know those OOC fanfiction where Hogwarts and the wizard world are given a makeover, i.e. technology will not short-circuit in a magic-filled environment. *sigh* While Akarnae did remind of such, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of reading this book. Let’s face it, I’ve been dreaming of living this fantasy – minus the deranged, attractive person bent on wiping out the whole human race. And Akarnae can stand on its own unlike another book I’ve read.

Actually, I wanted to read Akarnae because there was no mention of a gorgeous, dark, brooding boy, who would be the catalyst for turning the main character’s life turning upside-down, in the synopsis. It made me smile and think that here’s a girl who wouldn’t be so hung up on a boy. I was worried when the first three people she met were gorgeous boys but I didn’t have worried because, really, there wasn’t any romance in the book. In fact, even if there were moments that felt like there would be something more with one of her best friends, there was none. They have a solid friendship with Bear saying that they consider Alex a sister. However, there was one boy worthy of note but it was already about three-quarters down and it was just a lot of staring. I like that boy’s name by the way.

All in all, Lynette Noni created a world where I really, really, wanted to go. Plus, the main character was smart and sensible and she asked what puzzled me with stories that have alternative worlds in them:

If I’m in another world, how can I understand you, and vice versa? How do you know English if there’s no England here?