Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis Published by Amulet Books on June 17th, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Young Adult
Goodreads
Amara is never alone. Not when she's protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they're fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. Not when she's punished, ordered around, or neglected.
She can't be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes.
Nolan longs for a life uninterrupted. Every time he blinks, he's yanked from his Arizona town into Amara's mind, a world away, which makes even simple things like hobbies and homework impossible. He's spent years as a powerless observer of Amara's life. Amara has no idea . . . until he learns to control her, and they communicate for the first time. Amara is terrified. Then, she's furious.
All Amara and Nolan want is to be free of each other. But Nolan's breakthrough has dangerous consequences. Now, they'll have to work together to survive--and discover the truth about their connection.
When I first heard about Otherbound, I knew I had to request it. A LGBT book with awesome fantasy elements? Sign me up!
Nolan, our main character, is a teenager who enters the mind of Amara, a young servant in a mythical land, every time he closes his eyes. Of course, Amara slowly figures out what is happening and she gets furious. And thus, the adventure begins! Except… it’s not really an adventure. In general, I was a little disappointed with Otherbound-I expected more. While I enjoyed many parts of the novel, I was disappointed with the execution of such a promising book.
Back to what I said earlier, the synopsis promises adventure, intrigue, SURPRISES yet, I felt that the plot was fairly standard. Sure, it was original and different than most books but the plot moved along at a terribly slow rate and I was a little confused at times. It was hard to grasp the concept behind Amara’s world,at first, and that made me struggle with getting into the book. However, the world-building was great. I loved Amara’s world although the plot surrounding it was difficult to understand.
While the plot was a little slow, the main characters were complex and well thought-out. I loved Nolan and his struggle to figure out who he is and his small identity crisis was interesting to read however, Amara was not quite as interesting. While I liked reading about her struggle with servitude, her character development wasn’t more complex than: “I have to do my duty and protect my princess”.
One of the positive aspects of this book is that the romance is hardly highlighted! While I can understand how some people would think that the romance plays a big part in the story, the romance was not a characteristic of the central plot, it was more of a minor thing compared to most books that I read.
In general, Otherbound was fairly interesting to read and I loved reading Nolan’s point of view. If you’re looking for a great LGBT fantasy, I recommend Otherbound! You might come across bumps and bruises along the way but it’ll be worth it for sure!
