Gateway By Sharon Shinn

Daiyu who transported out of her normal daily life and put through a vortex of a sort of time warp engages an alternate world. Before long and after she finds out that she is no longer in the dream sleep of night, is told by her soul ushers there that she may return to her regular world, a world she may not return to until after she has confronted the things of that world. A daunting destiny for any teenager. "A quji can't form in the presence of certain minerals, so you can leave behind anything that's got streaks of black or red in it," he said picking out three or four stones, showing them to her and tossing them away. "But anything that's this shade of gray or rose-that could be a qiji. Save those." Even with Kalen as her guide, this could be a long day.

On this planet or other and unmapped by our world of Shenglang, Daiya is the niece of Xiang. Although she misses her parents of a more regular and known earth, and because it seems that challenges similar to earth exist on the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side now place - such as relationship and money issues, she wonders during her journey here what it means to live a flowing, perfect life. Do her choices here on other earth form a causation which impacts a back reflection of what happens to her here on this new earth? One excerpt from the book describes some of the doings of other earth this way."That hadn't even occurred to her, but naturally, if the river flowed by analog cities such as Memphis and New Orleans, the residents of those towns would also want to pull wealth from the water."

Daiya as an archetype for the Queen Esther of the Jewish Torah spends most of the book being prepared by the inhabitants of Shenglang for her presentation ball. Therefore, certain things such as the rose quartz stone which her pocket always holds, and a red silk pouch become important enough to know about. Shinn however lays a trail of subtle and other mysterious meanings behind places and objects that relate to this modern-day story of a young woman thinking about finding her place in life while being instructed to lower her eyes while being spoken too.This is not behavior taught or appropriate to her normal day of a more assertive life back at her original home on regular earth. And it seems so very strange and unordinary for any earth. She has all of the Cinderella trimmings. Yet one wonders, are ideals something of a human creation?

"Had she been doing this all over again, Daiyu thought, she would have spent more time practicing how to move in the ridiculously high heels that Xiang had commissioned to match the blue dress. She was surprised the shoes didn't actually hurt, for they made her rather large feet look slim and graceful. But they were so perfectly constructed that they were quite comfortable except for the fact that she was sure she would fall off of them." This book helps young adults to think about what they can do to make themselves more comfortable and more attuned to the social situations which they know would provide healthy and supportive involvement. A lot of us had gone through our young life too painfully shy to reach out and make friends, let alone even go to a social event. A lot of other young adults today already know about this present-day drought. It is a mostly secret and unspoken thing going on that a teenager won't tell you about. But I think most teenagers would agree that if you would only speak with them and ask them about some of this, they would open up and let you know how they really feel.

And then there is that universal icebreaker known as food. Since we all have to eat to survive, we may as well make what we make as pleasant as possible. After all, food dominates areas, towns, countries and the world and even people in the other world of young Daiya and of course teenagers all over the globe. Asking them what they want to eat, or would they like to Shinn evokes the literary trope of young adult books everywhere. "Are you hungry?" Aurora asked. "There's food in the kitchen." "A little. I couldn't swallow anything this morning. And I didn't sleep at all last night." "Well, eat something and then take a nap. I'm going to look for Ombri. I'll be back as soon as I can." Then, the ultimate choice. Does Daiyu decide to stay in 'other world' or return home? The author of the book, an award-winning writer, the book has crafted a good fantasial read.